Development of novel protein-Ag nanocomposite for drug delivery and inactivation of bacterial applications

The potential applications, in the biomedical fields, of curcumin loaded silver nanocomposite were studied by using bovine serum albumin (protein) and aciylamide. The design and development of silver nanoparticles with small size and adequate stability are very important, in addition to their applicability, particularly in bio-medicine. In this study, silver nanoparticles were prepared by chemical reduction method, employing sodium borohydride as the reducing agent for silver nanoparticles. The properties of the protein hydrogels formed were characterized via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses. The size and its distribution, and formation of metal nanoparticles were confirmed by transmission electron microscopy indicating the diameter of the silver nanoparticles in the range of 3-8 nm. The thermal study of curcumin-silver nanocomposite hydrogels was determined by thermo-gravimetric analysis. In order to increase the antibacterial activity of theses inorganic nanomaterials, natural biological curcumin was incorporated into the protein hydrogel. The main emphasis in this investigation is to increase the antibacterial activity of the hydrogels by loading curcumin, for advanced medical application and as a model drug. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.