Curcumin nanoparticles: physicochemical fabrication, characterization, antioxidant, enzyme inhibition, molecular docking and simulation studies

Qudsia Kanwal; Mahmood Ahmed; Muhammad Hamza; Muhammad Ahmad; Atiq-Ur-Rehman; Numan Yousaf; Arshad Javaid; Aneela Anwar; Iqra Haider Khan; Muhammad Muddassar

doi:10.1039/d3ra01432k

Curcumin nanoparticles: physicochemical fabrication, characterization, antioxidant, enzyme inhibition, molecular docking and simulation studies

RSC Adv. 2023 Jul 24;13(32):22268-22280. doi: 10.1039/d3ra01432k. eCollection 2023 Jul 19.

Authors

Qudsia Kanwal¹, Mahmood Ahmed², Muhammad Hamza^{1

3}, Muhammad Ahmad², Atiq-Ur-Rehman⁴, Numan Yousaf⁵, Arshad Javaid⁶, Aneela Anwar⁷, Iqra Haider Khan⁶, Muhammad Muddassar⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, The University of Lahore Lahore Pakistan qudsia.kanwal@chem.uol.edu.pk.
² Department of Chemistry, Division of Science and Technology, University of Education, College Road Lahore Pakistan mahmoodresearchscholar@gmail.com mahmood.ahmed@ue.edu.pk.
³ Additive Manufacturing Institute, Shenzhen University China.
⁴ Department of Pharmacy, The University of Lahore Lahore Pakistan.
⁵ Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad Islamabad Pakistan.
⁶ Institute of Agricultural Sciences, University of the Punjab Lahore Pakistan.
⁷ Basic Sciences and Humanity, University of Engineering and Technology, Kala Shah Kaku Campus Lahore Pakistan.

Abstract

Curcumin is an extensively studied natural compound due to its extensive biological applications. However, there are some drawbacks linked to this compound such as poor absorption, low water-solubility, quick systemic elimination, fast metabolism, poor pharmacokinetics, low bioavailability, low penetration targeting efficacy and low stability. To overcome these drawbacks, curcumin is encapsulated in nano-carriers. In the current studies, we synthesized nanoparticles of curcumin without using nanocarriers by different methods such as nano-suspension (Cur-NSM), sonication (Cur-SM) and anti-solvent precipitation (Cur-ASP) to enhance the solubility of curcumin in water. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by FTIR, SEM and XRD analysis. These curcumin nanoparticles were screened for their solubilities in water, DPPH scavenging, amylase, α-glucosidase and β-glucosidase enzymatic activities. The particle size of nano-curcumin was found to be in the 47.4-98.7 nm range. The reduction in particle size of curcumin dramatically increases its solubility in water to 79.2 μg mL^-1, whereas the solubility of curcumin is just 0.98 μg mL^-1. Cur-ASP showed the highest free radical scavenging potential (48.84 ± 0.98%) which was comparable with standard BHT (50.48 ± 1.11%) at 75.0 μg mL^-1. As well, Cur-ASP showed the highest inhibition of α-amylase (68.67 ± 1.02%), α-glucosidase (58.30 ± 0.52%), and β-glucosidase (64.80 ± 0.43%) at 100 μg mL^-1 which is comparable with standard drug acarbose. The greater surface area of nanoparticles exposes the various groups of curcumin for blocking the binding sites of enzymes. This strategy may be helpful in designing curcumin as a potent therapeutic agent against diabetes mellitus. Further, the molecular interactions of curcumin with α-amylase, α-glucosidase, β-glucosidase, and polyphenol oxidase were assessed by analyzing the plausible binding modes of curcumin in the binding pocket of each receptor. The best binding mode of curcumin was used to make complexes with the target proteins and their stability was confirmed by 50 ns MD simulation.