Synthesis and Anticancer Activity Evaluation of Self- assembled Curcumin Loaded Gelatin - Oleic acid - Carboxymethyl Chitosan Nanoparticles on MCF-7 cells.

Curcumin (CUR) is a natural herb with known anticancer effects against many malignancies such as breast cancer. However, CUR is poorly water-soluble and suffers from low bioavailability, and its delivery to breast cancer through oral administration is interrupted by early release and degradation before reaching the target site. So, this study aimed to develop an oral breast cancer-targeted drug delivery system (DDS) using a combination of biopolymers like mucoadhesive carboxymethyl chitosan, oleic acid and gelatin to create biopolymer-mediated nanoparticles (NPs) for the delivery of hydrophobic CUR. Gelatin-Oleic acid-Carboxymethyl chitosan (GOC) readily self-assembles into nanoparticles (GOCNPs) using the desolvation process. Such self-assembled DDS based on biopolymers without any crosslinkers for the preparation present controlled drug release and enhanced anticancer efficacy compared to existing systems. The prepared GOCNPs were characterized by FTIR, HNMR, XRD, SEM, HRTEM, DLS, and Zeta analysis. The DDS's maximum drug loading efficiency (DLE) and encapsulation efficiency (EE) values at pH 4.0 were 78.0 ± 2.34 % and 94.0 ± 2.8 %, respectively. The CUR-loaded GOCNPs shows a 90.0 ± 2.6 % CUR release at pH 5.5, while the release percentage of CUR at pH 7.4 was only 37.0 ± 1.06 %. According to the MTT data, CUR-GOCNPs show significant cytotoxicity to MCF-7 cells, showed a cell viability of 20.16 % towards MCF-7 cancer cells and loading of CUR to the GOCNPs notably increased its anticancer activity as the IC50 of CUR-GOCNPs was significantly lowered (6.880 µg/mL against MCF-7 in 24 h analysis). Studies on drug release kinetics, cytotoxicity, apoptosis, hemocompatibility, swelling, and in vivo pharmacokinetics were carried out to prove the effectiveness of the biopolymer-based nanoparticles developed as an effective oral delivery system for CUR. The future holds enormous possibilities for the clinical translation of prepared drug delivery system, as advances in controlled drug delivery continue to prove the design and capabilities of GOCNPs.