Abstract

Curcumin, an herbal derivative, could be used as anticancer agent in drug delivery. Due to hydrophobic properties of curcumin, its bioavailability decreases to cancer cells. The aim of this study was to prepare curcumin loaded poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (CUR-PLGA-NPs) as a drug delivery system to overcome the limitation of hydrophobicity of CUR as well as to investigate its toxicity effect on human glioblastoma U87MG cells compared to free CUR. Single emulsion method was used to prepare CUR-PLGA-NPs. Under optimum conditions, the size of nanoparticles was characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Encapsulation efficiency and loading content were 89.77 and 9.06 , respectively; with a biphasic release behavior. Differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) thermograph of CUR-PLGA-NPs exhibited that CUR was dispersed in amorphous phase. The cytotoxicity studies on U87MG cell line indicated that CUR-PLGA-NPs had high cytotoxicity effects compared to free CUR. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) after cell incubation for 72 h was 57.99 μg/mL and 32.90 μg/mL for free CUR and CUR-PLGA-NPs, respectively. In conclusion, it is suggested that CUR-PLGA-NPs can be used for drug delivert to cancer cells. © 2019 by the authors.