title: Enhanced solubility and targeted delivery of curcumin by lipopeptide micelles.
abstract: A lipopeptide (LP)-containing KKGRGDS as the hydrophilic heads and lauric acid (C12) as the hydrophobic tails has been designed and prepared by standard solid-phase peptide synthesis technique. LP can self-assemble into spherical micelles with the size of ~30 nm in PBS (phosphate buffer saline) (pH 7.4). Curcumin-loaded LP micelles were prepared in order to increase the water solubility, sustain the releasing rate, and improve the tumor targeted delivery of curcumin. Water solubility, cytotoxicity, in vitro release behavior, and intracellular uptake of curcumin-loaded LP micelles were investigated. The results showed that LP micelles can increase the water solubility of curcumin 1.1 × 10(3) times and sustain the release of curcumin in a low rate. Curcumin-loaded LP micelles showed much higher cell inhibition than free curcumin on human cervix carcinoma (HeLa) and HepG2 cells. When incubating these curcumin-loaded micelles with HeLa and COS7 cells, due to the over-expression of integrins on cancer cells, the micelles can efficiently use the tumor-targeting function of RGD (functionalized peptide sequences: Arg-Gly-Asp) sequence to deliver the drug into HeLa cells, and better efficiency of the self-assembled LP micelles for curcumin delivery than crude curcumin was also confirmed by LCSM (laser confocal scanning microscope) assays. Combined with the enhanced solubility and higher cell inhibition, LP micelles reported in this study may be promising in clinical application for targeted curcumin delivery.
authors.affiliation: a Chemical Engineering and Pharmaceutics School , Henan University of Science and Technology , Luoyang 471023 , PR China.
authors.forename: Ju
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Wenlan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Danyu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Junbo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Cailin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D019556:COS Cells; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D003474:Curcumin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D056945:Hep G2 Cells; D006801:Humans; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D016023:Integrins / Q000378:metabolism; D055666:Lipopeptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D008823:Micelles; D012995:Solubility; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D004337:Drug Carriers; D016023:Integrins; D055666:Lipopeptides; D008823:Micelles; D014867:Water; D003474:Curcumin
keywords: curcumin; lipopeptide; micelles; self-assembly; targeted delivery