Development of new nanostructure based on poly(aspartic acid)-g-amylose for targeted curcumin delivery using helical inclusion complex

While curcumin has a broad range of beneficial properties such as anticancer, antioxidant and antibacterial activities, its poor solubility, low stability and non-selectivity toward tumor cells often limit its applications. Herein, we described the preparation and characterization of a new fully biocompatible graft copolymer from folic acid/amylose-functionalized poly(aspartic acid) (FA-PAsp-Am) as an effective nanocarrier using a simple aminolysis method. The inclusion complex formation ability of amylose (Am) with curcumin (Cur) as well as its glycotargeting ability when it grafted to the polyaspartic acid (PAsp) backbone as a side chain, could impart more selectivity to tumor cells, promote the solubility of curcumin and improve its stability against UV-Visible irradiation, as demonstrated by UV-Visible exposure test results. The obtained data from FT-IR, H-NMR, Fluorescence, SEM, DLS and UV-Visible techniques confirmed the successful synthesis of the polymer nanocarrier. The observed nanofiber like morphology (20 nm width by SEM) of the nanocarrier and the host-guest interaction of curcumin with the amylose helices facilitate the high efficiency of the drug loading. The influence of pH, on the curcumin release behavior also was assessed. Furthermore, the antioxidant ability of curcumin was largely maintained after the loading in the FA-PAsp-Am system. These properties collectively make the folic acid (FA) functionalized poly(aspartic acid)-graft-amylose@curcumin of potential interest for various biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery systems.