Nejabat Mojgan, Hadizadeh Farzin, Karav Sercan, Kesharwani Prashant, Sahebkar Amirhossein
Depertment of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Biotechnology Research Center, Pharmaceutical Technology Institute, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Int J Pharm. 2025 Aug 20;681:125889. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2025.125889. Epub 2025 Jun 23.
The combination of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and Curcumin (Cur) has garnered significant attention due to its therapeutic potential (e. g., cancer treatment, wound healing, and antioxidant applications). CUR has been highly regarded as a natural compound with pharmacological properties such as anticancer, antimicrobial, and antioxidant effects; however, its clinical applications are limited due to its low solubility and bioavailability. In this review, the potentials of CUR and ZnO NPs in the case of biomedical applications were taken into consideration. There have been many attempts to integrate ZnO NPs and CUR for enhancing the mentioned drawbacks of CUR. The effectiveness of ZnO-Cur (CUR/ZnO NPs) nanocomposites, particularly in cancer therapies has been very promising. These nanocomposites exhibit selective toxicity towards cancer cells, with their pH-sensitive release mechanism proving advantageous in targeting the acidic tumor microenvironment. In addition to these effects, CUR/ZnO NPs have antioxidant activity, induce apoptosis in cancer cells, and promote wound healing. The use of ZnO and ZnO-Cur composites led to notable improvements across various applications such as osteoblast viability increased by approximately 60%, Cur release improved by 150%, and osteosarcoma inhibition enhanced by 300%. In agricultural use, ZnO NPs increased silybin content and plant yield while sperm cryopreservation studies showed improved post-thaw quality with ZnO-Cur by measurable margins, significantly. The role of ZnO in boosting Cur bioavailability, therapeutic efficacy, and targeted delivery potential have been confirmed in several studies. However, there are many unsolved challenges such as scalability, cytotoxicity data, and toxicity at higher concentrations that need to be addressed.
氧化锌纳米颗粒（ZnO NPs）与姜黄素（Cur）的组合因其治疗潜力（如癌症治疗、伤口愈合和抗氧化应用）而备受关注。姜黄素作为一种具有抗癌、抗菌和抗氧化等药理特性的天然化合物，备受推崇；然而，由于其低溶解度和生物利用度，其临床应用受到限制。在本综述中，考虑了姜黄素和氧化锌纳米颗粒在生物医学应用中的潜力。人们进行了许多尝试，将氧化锌纳米颗粒和姜黄素结合起来，以改善姜黄素上述的缺点。ZnO-Cur（CUR/ZnO NPs）纳米复合材料的有效性，特别是在癌症治疗方面，前景非常广阔。这些纳米复合材料对癌细胞表现出选择性毒性，其pH敏感释放机制在靶向酸性肿瘤微环境方面具有优势。除了这些作用外，CUR/ZnO NPs还具有抗氧化活性，可诱导癌细胞凋亡，并促进伤口愈合。使用氧化锌和ZnO-Cur复合材料在各种应用中都带来了显著改善，如成骨细胞活力提高了约60%，姜黄素释放提高了150%，骨肉瘤抑制增强了300%。在农业应用中，氧化锌纳米颗粒增加了水飞蓟宾含量和植物产量，而精子冷冻保存研究表明，ZnO-Cur可显著提高解冻后的质量。多项研究证实了氧化锌在提高姜黄素生物利用度、治疗效果和靶向递送潜力方面的作用。然而，仍有许多未解决的挑战，如可扩展性、细胞毒性数据以及高浓度下的毒性等，需要加以解决。
