Abstract
A redispersible spray-dried formulation containing curcumin-loaded, lipid-core nanocapsules (LNC-C) was developed for oral administration. The neuroprotective activity of curcumin after the spray-drying process was evaluated in vitro. The spray-dried powder (SD-LNC-C) was produced using a drying adjuvant composed of a blend of maltodextrin and L-leucine (90:10 w/w). Acceptable process yield (~ 70%) and drug content (6.5 ± 0.2mgg-1) were obtained. SD-LNC-C was formed by smooth, spherical-shaped particles, and confocal Raman analysis indicated the distribution of the LNC-C on the surface of the leucine/maltodextrin agglomerates. The surface of the agglomerates was formed by a combination of LNC-C and adjuvants, and laser diffraction showed that SD-LNC-C had adequate aqueous redispersion, with no loss of controlled drug release behaviour of LNC-C. The in vitro curcumin activity against the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced proinflammatory response in organotypic hippocampal slice cultures was evaluated. Both formulations (LNC-C and SD-LNC-C) reduced TNF-α to similar levels. Therefore, neuroprotection of curcumin in vitro may be improved by nanoencapsulation followed by spray-drying, with no loss of this superior performance. Hence, the redispersible spray-dried powder proposed here represents a suitable approach for the development of innovative nanomedicines containing curcumin for the prevention/treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
Highlights
IntroductionCurcumin has been commercialized as a flavouring agent, preservative, colouring agent, and food supplement in several countries
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.Curcumin has been commercialized as a flavouring agent, preservative, colouring agent, and food supplement in several countries
Over the past few years, promising results have been reported for lipid-core nanocapsules (LNC)-C, such as their ability to improve the protection of the central nervous system (CNS), after oral administration in rats, against a cognitive impairment and redox imbalance induced by cigarette smoke [7] and in a model of cognitive impairment induced by the peptide Aβ[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42] [6], as well as its
Summary
Curcumin has been commercialized as a flavouring agent, preservative, colouring agent, and food supplement in several countries. It is a polyphenol derived from the root of the rhizome Curcuma longa (turmeric) [1]. LNC are vesicular structures containing an organogel composed of liquid and solid lipids as the core, which is surrounded by a polymeric wall [8,9]. Using this system to encapsulate a drug-
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