In vitro toxicity assessment of curcumin-nanoparticles used for targeted-cancer therapy

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Elise Verron, Varamini P, Dupleichs M, Lee W H and Rohanizadeh R

University of Sydney, Australia
University of Nantes, France

: J Forensic Toxicol Pharmacol

Abstract

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Recently nanomedicine represents a promising strategy for targeted-cancer therapy. It offers numerous advantages including optimizing poor solubility-drugs bioavailability. The present study focused on exploring the efficiency and the safety of curcumin nanomedicine. This active component of turmeric extract derived from the Curcuma longa plant has raised a considerable interest in medicine owing to its negligible toxicity and multiple therapeutic actions including anticancer and anti-inflammatory activities. Among its various molecular targets, some are involved in bone remodeling, which strongly suggests that curcumin can also affect the skeletal system. The present study sheds light on the current and potential applications of curcumin to treat bone disorders characterized by an excessive resorption activity including breast cancer bone metastasis. We designed a smart nanoformulation of curcumin to overcome its physicochemical and pharmacokinetic constraints as previously described. We conducted in vitro studies to assess anti-tumoral and antiresorption activities and toxicity of this nanoformulation on normal bone cells. After testing different concentrations and incubation time of pluronic, stable nanoparticles were obtained and characterized in terms of size and charge. For the in vitro assay, we used the wellcharacterized estrogen-independent human breast adenocarcinoma cell line MDA-MB-231. In addition, the mouse monocyte cell line RAW 264.7 was cultured in a-MEM medium and stimulated with RANK-L for 4 days. Preliminary results strongly suggest that these nanoparticles may provide anti-tumoral properties without inducing cytotoxic effect towards normal bone cells. We demonstrated that formulating curcumin in nanoparticles significantly promotes its anti-cancer activities and might be a promising approach for treating bone metastases.

Biography

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Email: elise.verron@univ-nantes.fr