Concanavaline A conjugated bacterial polyester-based PHBHHx nanoparticles loaded with curcumin for breast cancer therapy

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate therapeutic potential of curcumin-loaded poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) PHBHHx nanoparticles (CUR-NPs) and concanavaline A conjugated curcumin-loaded NPs (ConA-CUR-NPs) for breast cancer treatment. The size and zeta potential of prepared NPs were about 228 ± 5 nm and −23.3 mV, respectively. The entrapment efficiencies of polymer/drug weight ratios, 1.25CUR-NPs, 2.5CUR-NPs, 5CUR-NPs, ConA-1.25CUR-NPs, ConA-2.5CUR-NPs and ConA-5CUR-NPs were found to be ≈68, 55, 45, 70, 60 and 51%, respectively. Optimized NPs formulations in the freeze-dried form were assessed with their short-term stability for 30 days of storage at 4 °C and 25 °C. Anticancer activity of ConA-CUR-NPs was proved by MTT assay and reconfirmed by double staining and flow cytometry results. The anticancer activity of ConA-CUR-NPs was measured in human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB 231) in vitro, and the results revealed that the ConA-CUR-NPs had better tumor cells decline activity.

Keywords:

• PHBHHx
• PHBHHx nanoparticles
• curcumin
• concanavaline A
• drug delivery
• human breast cancer cells

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Funding information

This work was financially supported by the Bulent Ecevit University for oral presentation in ICBN 2015: 17th International Conference on Biotechnology and Nanotechnology, 2015, Venice, Italy. Research Fund (Grant no. BEU-2015-YKD-33496813-01).