Preparing and assessing the physiochemical properties of curcumin niosomes and evaluating their cytotoxicity in 3T3 and MCF-7 cell lines

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

1 Pharmaceutics Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

2 Pharmaceutics Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran. Herbal and Traditional Medicines Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran. Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

Abstract

Objective: Application of vesicular drug delivery systems has made major progress in pharmaceutical science and technology. Niosomal drug delivery is potentially efficient to improve the pharmacokinetic and pharmacological properties of many compounds. Curcumin (CUR) has several documented anticancer activities; however, it has a low bioavailability that necessitates the development of efficient delivery systems. Accordingly, different niosomal preparations were prepared and evaluated in the present study to find a suitable delivery system.
Materials and Methods: Span and Tween 20, 40, 60, and 80 were employed with various concentrations of cholesterol for studying the ability to form curcumin-loaded niosomes. Multiple characterization techniques including visual evaluation, particle size analysis, stability, encapsulation efficiency (EE), and release profile were studied. Cytotoxicity of curcumin niosomes on MCF-7 and 3T3 cell lines was determined using MTT assay.
Results: Visual and particle size analysis indicated the formation of seven niosomal formulations in the micron size range, while the formulation consisted of Tween 40/cholesterol (50/50 M%) with 0.05% w/v CUR had an average diameter of 475 nm. The latter formulation was selected and it had EE of 78.5%. The CUR release profile showed 18.7% release over a period of 300 min. The MTT results showed that CUR incorporation significantly increased the cytotoxicity of niosomes and the extent of toxicity was higher in MCF-7 cells.
Conclusion: In this study, a simple niosomal formulation was developed for CUR loading with favorable physicochemical properties. The presented niosomal curcumin had also considerable effects in cell toxicity studies, which can be suggested for future anticancer studies.

Keywords


Afshari AR, Jalili-Nik M, Abbasinezhad-Moud
F, Javid H, Karimi M, Mollazadeh H,
Jamialahmadi T, Sathyapalan T, Sahebkar
A. 2021. Anti-tumor effects of curcuminoids
in glioblastoma multiforme: an updated
literature review. Curr med chem, Online
ahead of print.
Akbari J, Saeedi M, Enayatifard R, MortezaSemnani K, Hashemi SMH, Babaei A,
Rahimnia SM, Rostamkalaei SS, Nokhodchi
A. 2020. Curcumin niosomes (curcusomes)
as an alternative to conventional vehicles: a
potential for efficient dermal delivery. J
Drug Deliv Sci Technol, 60: 102035.
Ashraf Ganjooei et al.
AJP, Vol. 11, No. 4, Jul-Aug 2021 426
Amoabediny G, Haghiralsadat F, Naderinezhad
S, Helder MN, Akhoundi Kharanaghi E,
Mohammadnejad Arough J, ZandiehDoulabi B. 2018. Overview of preparation
methods of polymeric and lipid-based
(niosome, solid lipid, liposome)
nanoparticles: a comprehensive review. Int
Jour Polym Mater and Polym Biom, 67:
383-400.
Anand P, Kunnumakkara AB, Newman RA,
Aggarwal BB. 2007. Bioavailability of
curcumin: problems and promises. Mol
pharm, 4: 807-818.
Asadikaram G, Poustforoosh A, Pardakhty A,
Torkzadeh-Mahani M, Nematollahi MH.
2021. Niosomal virosome derived by
vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein as a
new gene carrier. Biochem Biophys Res
Commun, 534: 980-987.
Barani M, Nematollahi MH, Zaboli M, Mirzaei
M, Torkzadeh-Mahani M, Pardakhty A,
Asadikaram G. 2019. In silico and in vitro
study of magnetic niosomes for gene
delivery: the effect of ergosterol and
cholesterol. Mater Sci Eng C, 94: 234-246.
Behnam B, Rezazadehkermani M,
Ahmadzadeh S, Mokhtarzadeh A,
Nematollahi-Mahani SN, Pardakhty A.
2018. Microniosomes for concurrent
doxorubicin and iron oxide nanoparticles
loading; preparation, characterization and
cytotoxicity studies. Artif Cells Nanomed
Biotechnol, 46: 118-125.
Kavousi HR, Fathi M, Goli SA. 2018. Novel
cress seed mucilage and sodium caseinate
microparticles for encapsulation of
curcumin: an approach for controlled
release. Food Bioprod Process, 110: 126-
135.
M Yallapu M, Jaggi M, Chauhan SC. 2013.
Curcumin nanomedicine: a road to cancer
therapeutics. Curr pharm des, 19: 1994-
2010.
Mahmoudi R, Ashraf Mirahmadi-Babaheidri S,
Delaviz H, Fouani MH, Alipour M, Jafari
Barmak M, Christiansen G, Bardania H.
2021. RGD peptide-mediated liposomal
curcumin targeted delivery to breast cancer
cells. J Biomater App, 35: 743-753.
Moballegh-Nasery M, Mandegary A,
Eslaminejad T, Zeinali M, Pardakhti A,
Behnam B, Mohammadi M. 2020.
Cytotoxicity evaluation of curcumin-loaded
affibody-decorated liposomes against breast
cancerous cell lines. J liposome res, 31: 189-
194.
Mohanty C, Sahoo SK. 2017. Curcumin and its
topical formulations for wound healing
applications. Drug Discov Today, 22: 1582-
1592.
Ohadi M, Forootanfar H, Dehghannoudeh G,
Eslaminejad T, Ameri A, Shakibaie M,
Adeli-Sardou M. 2020. Antimicrobial, antibiofilm, and anti-proliferative activities of
lipopeptide biosurfactant produced by
Acinetobacter junii B6. Microb pathog, 138:
103806.
Ohadi M, Rezaei P, Mehrabani M, Behnam B,
Ansari M. 2021. Synthesis, characterization
and toxicity assessment of the novel non
covalent functionalized multi-walled carbon
nanotubes with glycyrrhizin, curcumin and
rutin. J Clust Sci, Online ahead of print.
Ojeda E, Puras G, Agirre M, Zarate J, Grijalvo
S, Eritja R, DiGiacomo L, Caracciolo G,
Pedraz JL. 2016. The role of helper lipids in
the intracellular disposition and transfection
efficiency of niosome formulations for gene
delivery to retinal pigment epithelial cells.
Int j of pharma, 503: 115-126.
Pardakhty A, Moazeni E. 2013. Nano-niosomes
in drug, vaccine and gene delivery: a rapid
overview. Nanomed J, 1: 1-12.
Patel SS, Acharya A, Ray R, Agrawal R,
Raghuwanshi R, Jain P. 2020. Cellular and
molecular mechanisms of curcumin in
prevention and treatment of disease. Crit rev
food sci nut, 60: 887-939.
Prasad S, Gupta SC, Tyagi AK, Aggarwal BB.
2014. Curcumin, a component of golden
spice: From bedside to bench and back.
Biotechnol Adv, 32: 1053-1064.
Rahimi HR, Nedaeinia R, Shamloo AS,
Nikdoust S, Oskuee RK. 2016. Novel
delivery system for natural products: nanocurcumin formulations. Avicenna j
phytomed, 6: 383-398.
Rathee J, Kanwar R, Kaushik D, Salunke DB,
Mehta SK. 2020. Niosomes as efficient drug
delivery modules for encapsulation of Tolllike receptor 7 agonists and IDO-inhibitor.
Appl Surf Sci, 505: 144078.
Rezayi M, Mahmoodi P, Langari H, Behnam B,
Sahebkar A. 2020. Conjugates of curcumin
with graphene and carbon nanotubes: a
review on biomedical applications. Curr
med chem, 27: 6849-6863.
Sahab-Negah S, Ariakia F, Jalili-Nik M,
Afshari AR, Salehi S, Samini F, Rajabzadeh
G, Gorji A. 2020. Curcumin loaded in
Niosomal curcumin
AJP, Vol. 11, No. 4, Jul-Aug 2021 427
niosomal nanoparticles improved the antitumor effects of free curcumin on
glioblastoma stem-like cells: an in vitro
study. Mol neurobiol, 57: 3391-3411.
Sahu AK, Mishra J, Mishra AK. 2020.
Introducing Tween-curcumin niosomes:
preparation, characterization and
microenvironment study. Soft matter, 16:
1779-1791.
Samarehfekri H, Ranjbar M, Pardakhty A,
Amanatfard A. 2020. Systematic study of
naf nanoparticles in micelles loaded on
polylactic acid nanoscaffolds: in vitro
efficient delivery. J Clust Sci, 3: 453-461.
Sarkar A, De R, Mukhopadhyay AK. 2016.
Curcumin as a potential therapeutic
candidate for Helicobacter pylori associated
diseases. World j gastroenterol, 22: 2736-
2748.
Shakeri A, Cicero AF, Panahi Y, Mohajeri M,
Sahebkar A. 2019. Curcumin: A naturally
occurring autophagy modulator. J cell
physiolol, 234: 5643-5654.
Shehata TM, Ibrahim MM, Elsewedy HS. 2021.
Curcumin niosomes prepared from
proniosomal gels: in vitro skin permeability,
kinetic and in vivo studies. Polymers, 13:
791.
Slika L, Patra D. 2020. A short review on
chemical properties, stability and nanotechnological advances for curcumin
delivery. Expert opin drug deliv, 17: 61-75.
Xu YQ, Chen WR, Tsosie JK, Xie X, Li P, Wan
JB, He CW, Chen MW. 2016. Niosome
encapsulation of curcumin: characterization
and cytotoxic effect on ovarian cancer cells.
J Nanomater, 2: 1-9.
Zhao YZ, Lu CT, Zhang Y, Xiao J, Zhao YP,
Tian JL, Xu YY, Feng ZG, Xu CY. 2013.
Selection of high efficient transdermal lipid
vesicle for curcumin s