Preparation and characterization of curcumin-loaded silica nanoparticles and their in-vivo anti-cancer activity evaluation

Curcumin [(1E,6E)-1,7-bis (4-hydroxy- 3-methoxyphenyl) -1,6- heptadiene-3,5-dione)], a polyphenolic compound derived from dietary spice turmeric, has numerous biological and pharmacological activities. It is currently being used for treating several disorders, including cancer. Keeping in view its importance, the curcumin was embedded in the silica nanoparticles prepared by reaction of Tween-40, n-Butanol, triethoxyvinylsilane and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane using water as solvent. After completion of reaction, the nanoparticles were obtained by dialysis of the reaction mixture. The nanoparticles were characterized by SEM, TEM, DLS and XRD analyses. The SEM, TEM and DLS analysis shows the average particle size to be 70nm, 66 nm and 75.72nm respectively. Further in-vivo studies were conducted on wistar rats to determine the maximum tolerance dose (MTD) of nanoparticles and study the anti-cancer potential by tumor regression analysis. The MTD was found to be 10 mg/kg body weight of wistar rats and curcumin-doped ORMOSIL nanoparticles in comparison with pure curcumin revealed the highly significant results in tumor regression in EAT induced tumor model.