Facile Synthesis of Natural Therapeutics Encapsulated Biopolymeric Okra Mucilage Nanoparticles as Dual ameliorative agent

Among the different types of biomaterials, natural excipients Okra mucilage (MNP) is economic and has the potential for controlled drug delivery. We have synthesized MNPs by co-precipitation method and characterized them by XRD, FESEM, FTIR, UV-Vis spectra and DLS. Despite their potential anti-cancer activity, solubility of curcumin, piperine, thymoquinone is very low rendering its limit in application. We have used MNPs where the natural compounds like curcumin, piperine, thymoquinone can be loaded comfortably and thereby increases its bioavailability. The antibacterial activity of these nanoparticles were evaluated against pathogenic bacterial strains. The cytotoxicity of curcumin ,piperine, thymoquinone encapsulated MNPs 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, piperine, thymoquinone encapsulated MNPs, for delivering it specifically to the breast cancer cells. The antimicrobial and anticancer potential of conjugated and non conjugated MNP were assessed by various in vitro cellular assays. Our present study confirms that these functionacan be used as a dual therapeutic option for combating pathogenic microbial strains and triple negative breast cancer cell.