Formulation, Characterization and Biological Activity Screening of Sodium Alginate-Gum Arabic Nanoparticles Loaded with Curcumin
Abdelkader Hassani, Syed Mahmood, Hamid Hammad Enezei, Siti Aslina Hussain, Hamad Ali Hamad, Ahmed Faris Aldoghachi, Abdullah Hagar, Abd Almonem Doolaanea, Wisam Nabeel Ibrahim
Abstract
The approach of drug delivery systems emphasizes the use of nanoparticles as a vehicle, offering the optional property of delivering drugs as a single dose rather than in multiple doses. The current study aims to improve antioxidant and drug release properties of curcumin loaded gum Arabic-sodium alginate nanoparticles (Cur/ALG-GANPs). The Cur/ALG-GANPs were prepared using the ionotropic gelation technique and further subjected to physico-chemical characterization using attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), size distribution, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The size of Cur/ALG-GANPs ranged between 10 ± 0.3 nm and 190 ± 0.1 nm and the zeta potential was -15 ± 0.2 mV. The antioxidant study of Cur/ALG-GANPs exhibited effective radical scavenging capacity for 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) at concentrations that ranged between 30 and 500µg/mL. Cytotoxicity was performed using MTT assay to measure their potential in inhibiting the cell growth and the result demonstrated a significant anticancer activity of Cur/ALG-GANPs against human liver cancer cells (HepG2) than in colon cancer (HT29), lung cancer (A549) and breast cancer (MCF7) cells. Thus, this study indicates that Cur/ALG-GANPs have promising anticancer properties that might aid in future cancer therapy.