Anticancer drug-based multifunctional nanogels through self-assembly of dextran-curcumin conjugates toward cancer theranostics.

Curcumin (CCM) has been received much attention in cancer theranostics because CCM exhibits both anticancer activity and strong fluorescence available for bio-imaging. However, CCM has never been utilized in clinical mainly due to its extremely low water solubility and its low cellular uptake into cancer cells. We fabricated novel CCM-based biodegradable nanoparticles through self-assembly of amphiphilic dextran-CCM conjugates. Significantly high CCM loading contents in the nanoparticles and the high water solubility were achieved. Importantly, the dextran-CCMs nanoparticles were effectively delivered into HeLa cells and exhibited strong fluorescence available for live-cell imaging, although the nanoparticles were not delivered into normal cells. Thus, the dextran-CCMs nanoparticles could be a promising for creation of novel CCM-based cancer theranostics with high efficacy.