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Antitumor Activity of Curcumin-Green Synthesized Gold Nanoparticles: In Vitro Study

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Abstract

There are plethoras of delivery systems for anticancer agents. Natural anticancer agents are promising due to their biocompatibility. However, one of the major problems of using natural anticancer agents, such as curcumin, is their low solubility and bioavailability under physiological conditions. Here, we studied the effect of gold nanoparticles (AuNP's) on enhancing the efficacy of curcumin as an anticancer agent. The physicochemical properties of curcumin-reduced gold nanoparticles (AuNP's-Cur) were studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and UV/Vis spectroscopy. We evaluated the cytotoxicity of the prepared nanoparticle against colon (HCT-116) and breast (MCF-7) human cancer cell lines. TEM images revealed the mono-dispersed spherical nature of AuNP's-Cur. Curcumin-reduced gold nanoparticles are highly stable (aggregation-resistant) over a period of 6 months. Our cell-based assay showed that the prepared AuNP's-Cur (0.72 μg mL−1) have higher antiproliferative and apoptotic effects against MCF-7 and HCT-116 cells, compared to free curcumin. The development of such eco-friendly nanocarrier for curcumin greatly enhanced its antitumor activity, indicating the promising utilization of nutraceutical nanoformulation in cancer therapy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Physics Program, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia

    Nihal Saad Elbialy

  2. Biophysics Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, 12613, Egypt

    Nihal Saad Elbialy, Eman A. Abdelfatah & Wafaa A. Khalil

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  1. Nihal Saad Elbialy
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  2. Eman A. Abdelfatah
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Correspondence to Nihal Saad Elbialy.

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Elbialy, N.S., Abdelfatah, E.A. & Khalil, W.A. Antitumor Activity of Curcumin-Green Synthesized Gold Nanoparticles: In Vitro Study. BioNanoSci. 9, 813–820 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12668-019-00660-w

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