Curcumin Encapsulated Alginate/Pluronic Block Copolymer Micelles as a Promising Therapeutic Agent

Abstract

Curcumin in turmeric is responsible for most of the therapeutic effects exhibited by this natural product. Solubility of this dietary compound is very low in water at neutral pH and room temperature, which decreases its bioavailability. This in turn proves to be a major setback in making use of curcumin as a therapeutic agent against many diseases, including cancer. Alginate/Pluronic® tri-block copolymer P123 micelles has the potential for the formulation of curcumin. Inner core of the micelles effectively trap-free curcumin as evidenced by analytical data. The drug-encapsulated micelles were spherical in shape with diameters below 100 nm and found to be spherical particles with an average size of 50–100 nm, being suitable for drug delivery applications. Release profile of curcumin was investigated in aqueous PBS solution at pH 7.4 (37 ± 0.2 ºC). Fitting of drug release data in the Korsmeyer–Peppas model suggested sustained release with diffusion mechanism (0.5 < n). The in vitro cytotoxicity of the drug formulation was investigated with L 929 cancer cells. Polymer encapsulated curcumin showed comparable anticancer activity with free Curcumin.