A Novel Nanosystem Realizing Curcumin Delivery Based on Fe3O4@Carbon Dots Nanocomposite for Alzheimer’s Disease Therapy

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease, which seriously affects human health but lacks effective treatment methods. Amyloid β (Aβ) aggregates are considered a possible target for AD treatment. Evidence is increasingly showing that curcumin (CUR) can partly protect cells from Aβ-mediated neurotoxicity by inhibiting Aβ aggregation. However, the efficiency of targeted cellular uptake and bioavailability of CUR is very low due to its poor stability and water-solubility. In order to better improve the cell uptake efficiency and bioavailability of CUR and reduce the cytotoxicity of high-dose CUR, a novel CUR delivery system for AD therapy has been constructed based on the employment of the Fe3O4@carbon dots nanocomposite (Fe3O4@CDs) as the carrier. CUR-Fe3O4@CDs have a strong affinity toward Aβ and effectively inhibit extracellular Aβ fibrillation. In addition, CUR-Fe3O4@CDs can inhibit the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediated by Aβ fibrils and the corresponding neurotoxicity in PC12 cells. More importantly, it can restore nerve damage and maintained neuronal morphology. These results indicate that the application of CUR-Fe3O4@CDs provides a promising platform for the treatment of AD.

Action Mechanisms of Curcumin in Alzheimer’s Disease and Its Brain Targeted Delivery

“…Due to its low water solubility, it is eliminated from the body at a fast rate, and therefore, its oral bioavailability is quite low. Additionally, it is chemically unstable [71][72][73]. Many strategies have been tried to improve the efficiency of curcumin for AD, and these will be presented in this paper [39,74].…”

A Co-delivery System Based on a Dimeric Prodrug and Star-Shaped Polymeric Prodrug Micelles for Drug Delivery

“…The micelles showed spherical morphology and the sizes were smaller than the micelles obtained by DLS, which might be caused by the collapse of the hydrophilic PEG shell in the dry state (Wu et al, 2020) 4C,D). This size of micelles ranged from 50 to 150 nm could passively target the tumor with high efficiency through EPR effect (Kang et al, 2020;Kuang et al, 2020). Then the character of the reduction-sensitive was verified in this drug delivery system, DLS was used to monitor the size change of PSSP and diP@PSSP micelles in response to 10 mM GSH (Figure 5).…”

Recent Advances in Carbon Nanodots: A Promising Nanomaterial for Biomedical Applications

“…Due to the growing potential of CNDs in biomedical applications, studies have attempted to discern their use as therapeutic agents [30,[56][57][58][59][60][61].…”