Curcumin-loaded silica-based mesoporous materials: Synthesis, characterization and cytotoxic properties against cancer cells

• Synthesis of novel mesoporous silica-based curcumin drug delivery system
• Slow and sustained release of curcumin in blood simulated fluid
• Enhanced cytotoxicity of curcumin in three diverse cancer cell lines
• Cancer cell migration inhibition and generation of superoxide radicals
• Activation of apoptosis by DNA damage and down regulation of BCL-2, EGFR proteins

Two different silica based (MSU-2 and MCM-41) curcumin loaded mesoporous materials V3 and V6 were synthesized and characterized by several physico-chemical techniques. Release kinetic study revealed the slow and sustained release of curcumin from those materials in blood simulated fluid (pH: 7.4). The materials V3 and V6 were found to be biocompatible in non-cancerous CHO cell line while exhibiting significant cytotoxicity in different cancer cells (human lung carcinoma cells: A549, human breast cancer cells: MCF-7, mouse melanoma cells: B16F10) compared to pristine curcumin indicating the efficacy of the mesoporous silica materials based drug delivery systems (DDSs). The generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and down regulation of anti-apoptotic protein leading to the induction of apoptosis were found to be the plausible mechanisms behind the anti-cancer activity of these DDSs. These results suggest that curcumin-loaded drug delivery system may be successfully employed as an alternative treatment strategy for cancer therapeutics through a nanomedicine approach in near future.

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