Incorporation of dimethoxycurcumin into charged liposomes and the formation kinetics of fractal aggregates of uncharged vectors

Abstract

Dimethoxycurcumin (DMC) is a lipophilic analog of curcumin found in Curcuma longa Linn., which is known to possess significant activity against various cancer cell lines. The purpose of this study was to develop suitable liposomal formulations in order to overcome DMC's poor water solubility and to study the aggregation kinetic profile using the fractal analysis. DMC was incorporated into liposomal formulations composed of DPPC, DPPC:DPPG:chol (9:1:1 molar ratio) and DPPC:DODAP:chol (9:1:1 molar ratio) liposomes. Light scattering techniques were used to elucidate the physicochemical parameters of the liposomal formulations with and without DMC. The structural characteristics of the incorporated molecule were found to be crucial and promote the aggregation mechanism depending also on the liposomes' composition. The results of our study contribute to the overall scientific efforts to prepare efficient carriers for DMC and could be a useful tool in order to study more efficiently the kinetics of the aggregation process of the liposomal carriers.

Influence of Lipid Composition, pH, and Temperature on Physicochemical Properties of Liposomes with Curcumin as Model Drug

“…Thus, the movement of curcumin in SPC liposomes is hindered to a greater extent compared to in other systems, explaining the highest anisotropy value of curcumin for the SPC liposomes. The lowest r value for DPPG may have been observed because of similarity in the charge of the probe and the lipid 63 . Anisotropy values for all systems except DPPC increased with pH, possibly because of increased ionization of curcumin, resulting in fewer neutral curcumin molecules available at higher pH 64 .…”

Biological and pharmacological evaluation of dimethoxycurcumin: A metabolically stable curcumin analogue with a promising therapeutic potential

“…The authors concluded that DiMC incorporation could induce topological changes on the surface of liposomes directing liposomal aggregation (Hadjidemetriou et al, ). In this regard, Van der Waals interactions were proposed for the rapid aggregation of the DPPC liposomes with neutral surface charge (Hadjidemetriou et al, ). The liposomal stability might become more complicated when the mentioned liposomes faces the vast membrane of cells and serum proteins in vivo , where lipophilic interactions are pronounced (Hadjidemetriou et al, ; Wang et al, ).…”

“…Although extensive research has been conducted with respect to curcumin entrapped in various nanoparticulate platforms (Naksuriya, Okonogi, Schiffelers, & Hennink, 2014), the data on DiMC nanoparticulation is still in its infancy. Similar to curcumin, the low water solubility of DiMC is a drawback to its multifaceted utility in vivo (Hadjidemetriou, Pippa, Pispas, & Demetzos, 2013;Liu et al, 2015;Markatou et al, 2007). The idea of DiMC incorporation into watermiscible nanoparticulate platforms has attempted by a few researchers so far (Hadjidemetriou et al, 2013;Liu et al, 2015;Markatou et al, 2007).…”

The imaging and the fractal metrology ofchimericliposomal Drug Delivery nano Systems: the role of macromolecular architecture of polymeric guest

“…The fractal analysis is used to determine the morphology of advanced Drug Delivery nano Systems (aDDnSs) (Hadjidemetriou et al, 2013;Pippa et al, 2012aPippa et al, ,b,c, 2013a. The techniques for estimating the fractal dimension of nanosystems are those that are already reported in our recent publication (Pippa et al, 2013e).…”