Synthesis and Characterization of Curcumin Loaded Flexible Liposomes Decorated with Hyaluronic Acid and Po Peptide

Abstract

Curcumin is known for its antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties.  However, it suffers from poor bioavailability and one way to address this issue is to encapsulate curcumin in a nanocarrier.  In this work, curcumin was loaded into flexible liposomes decorated with hyaluronic acid and Po peptide to increase the bioavailability of curcumin and to prepare the carrier for the possibility of active targeting.  CD44 and I-CAM-1 are cell surface glycoproteins which are usually expressed during inflammatory events and hyaluronic acid and Po peptide are ligands that can bind to CD44 and I-CAM-1, respectively. The flexible liposomes decorated with hyaluronic acid and Po peptide were prepared using thin-film hydration method. The particle size, PDI and zeta potential of the modified flexible liposomes were 85.13 nm, 0.1989 and -29.5 mV, respectively. The encapsulation efficiency was high at 90.1%. FTIR analysis showed that HA and peptides were successfully conjugated to the flexible liposomes. The characteristics of the nanocarrier showed that it has the potential to be utilized as an effective delivery system.