The β-diketo-modified isoxazole derivative of curcumin (IOC) is well renowned for its anticancer, antioxidant, antimalarial, antiproliferative, and many other biological activities. With the aim of obtaining fundamental knowledge on the photophysics of IOC, the present work was directed toward delineating those at different pH environments and studying the degradation profiles of IOC at five different pH values. Because one of the primary drawbacks of curcumin is its rapid degradation at physiological conditions, the studies showed that the problem could be resolved, as the IOC molecule was extremely stable even in a highly alkaline medium. Further, in order to encounter the problems associated with the low solubility of IOC in aqueous media, β-CD (β-cyclodextrin) was used and calculations of the thermodynamic parameters revealed that the process of development of the host-guest inclusion complex was highly spontaneous in nature. The synthesis of the IOC:β-CD inclusion complex has also been accomplished in the solid state, and the solid formed has been characterized using various physicochemical techniques. Finally, while variations in the pH as well as addition of foreign metal ions in +1 and +2 oxidation states showed minimal effect on the photophysics of the IOC:β-CD inclusion complex, antiproliferative studies performed with 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assays revealed their nontoxic nature on fibroblast L929 normal cell lines and extremely toxic activity on human lung cancer A549 cell lines.
Keywords: MTT assay; inclusion complex; isoxazole derivative of curcumin; pH-dependent stability; photophysics; spectroscopy; β-cyclodextrin.