Folic acid conjugated curcumin loaded biopolymeric gum acacia microsphere for triple negative breast cancer therapy in invitro and invivo model

Among the different types of biomaterials, natural excipients gum acacia (GA) is economic and has the potential for controlled drug delivery. We have synthesized GA microspheres by co-precipitation method and characterized them by XRD, FESEM, H-1 NMR, FTIR, UV visible spectra and DLS. Despite its potential anti-cancer activity, solubility of curcumin is very low rendering its limit in application. We have used GA microspheres where curcumin can be loaded comfortably and thereby increases its bioavailability. The cytotoxicity of curcumin encapsulated GA microspheres was evaluated on triple negative breast cancer cell lines. They were found to induce apoptosis by perturbing the mitochondrial membrane potential. Folic acid was conjugated to curcumin encapsulated GA microspheres, for delivering it specifically to the cancer cells. The in-vivo study in BALB/C mice model exhibited more tumor regression in case of folic acid targeted curcumin encapsulated GA microsphere. Our results implicates that these microspheres can be an effective therapeutic agent to folate receptors over expressing cancer cells.