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Curcumin Encapsulated in Milk Exosomes Resists Human Digestion and Possesses Enhanced Intestinal Permeability in Vitro

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Abstract

Exosomes, the extracellular secretary nano-vesicles, act as carriers of biomolecules to the target cells. They exhibit several attributes of an efficient drug delivery system. Curcumin, despite having numerous bioactive and therapeutic properties, has limited pharmaceutical use due to its poor water solubility, stability, and low systemic bioavailability. Hence, this study aims to enhance the therapeutic potential of curcumin, a model hydrophobic drug, by its encapsulation into milk exosomes. In the present study, we investigated the stability of free curcumin and exosomal curcumin in PBS and in vitro digestive processes. Additionally, their uptake and trans-epithelial transport were studied on Caco-2 cells. Curcumin in milk exosomes had higher stability in PBS, sustained harsh digestive processes, and crossed the intestinal barrier than free curcumin. In conclusion, the encapsulation of curcumin into the exosomes enhances its stability, solubility, and bioavailability. Therefore, the present study demonstrated that milk exosomes act as stable oral drug delivery vehicles.

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Acknowledgments

We are thankful to the Director, NDRI, Karnal, for providing the necessary facilities for this work. We are grateful to CRP on Nanotechnology-ICAR for the support. We acknowledge Dr. S. K. Tomar for providing the SEM facility.

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Author notes

  1. Monika Vashisht and Payal Rani are co-first authors and have equally contributed to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Endocrinology, Functional Genomics and Systems Biology Laboratory, Animal Biochemistry Division, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, 132001, India

    Monika Vashisht, Payal Rani, Suneel Kumar Onteru & Dheer Singh

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  1. Monika Vashisht
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  2. Payal Rani
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  3. Suneel Kumar Onteru
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  4. Dheer Singh
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Correspondence to Dheer Singh.

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Vashisht, M., Rani, P., Onteru, S.K. et al. Curcumin Encapsulated in Milk Exosomes Resists Human Digestion and Possesses Enhanced Intestinal Permeability in Vitro. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 183, 993–1007 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-017-2478-4

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