Fabrication of a Soybean Bowman-Birk Inhibitor (BBI) Nanodelivery Carrier To Improve Bioavailability of Curcumin.

Curcumin is a poorly water-soluble drug, and its oral bioavailability is very low. Here, a novel self-assembly nanoparticle delivery carrier has been successfully developed by using soybean Bowman-Birk inhibitor (BBI) to improve the solubility, bioaccessibility, and oral absorption of curcumin. BBI is a unique protein, which can be resistant to the pH range and proteolytic enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), bioavailable, and not allergenic. The encapsulation efficiencies (EE) and the loading capacities (LC) of curcumin in the curcumin-loaded BBI nanoparticles (Cur-BBI-NPs, size = 90.09 nm, PDI = 0.103) were 86.17 and 10.31%, respectively. The in vitro bioaccessibility of Cur-BBI-NPs was superior to that of curcumin-loaded sodium caseinate (SC) nanoparticles (Cur-SC-NPs) (as control). Moreover, Cur-BBI-NPs significantly enhanced the bioavailability of curcumin in rats compared with Cur-SC-NPs, and the clathrin-mediated endocytosis pathway probably contributed to the favorable bioavailability of Cur-BBI-NPs, as revealed by the cellular uptake inhibition study.