Facile fabrication of abundantly available biopolymer as efficacious vehicles of promising natural therapeutics in breast cancer amelioration

Among the different types of nanoparticles, gum acacia nanoparticles have the potential for controlled drug delivery to cancer cells. We have synthesized gum acacia nanoparticles by nanoprecipitation method. Physical characterization of the synthesized nanoparticles was done by DLS(Dynamic Light Scattering) and Zeta Potential. Hydrodynamic size of Gum Acacia NPs as measured by DLS was 413.3nm and surface charge of the same was found to be -0.348mV.For the possible biomedical application,we have used curcumin, a natural chemotherapeutic agent.Despite its potential anti-cancer activity, solubility of curcumin is very low rendering its limit in application. Several efforts have been made to solubilise curcumin to enhance its bioavailability. We have used gum acacia nanoparticles where curcumin can be loaded comfortably and thereby increases its bioavailabilty. The cytotoxicity of curcumin-gum acacia NP complex was evaluated on breast cancer cell lines with respect to pre-determined LD50 doses. To investigate the mechanisms, various biochemical assays were also performed. Further, we have explored the fact that the uptake of curcumin by the cells is increased when the curcumin is loaded with gum acacia NPs by utilising the fluorescence property of curcumin. The curcumin-Gum Acacia NP complex was found to induce apoptosis by perturbing the mitochondrial membrane potential of the cancer cells.