Novel Curcumin loaded nanoparticles engineered for Blood-Brain Barrier crossing and able to disrupt Abeta aggregates

Ruozi Barbara, Daniela Belletti, Francesca Pederzoli, Martina Masoni, Johannes Keller, Antonio Ballestrazzi, Maria Angela Vandelli, Giovanni Tosi, Andreas M. Grabrucker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The formation of extracellular aggregates built up by deposits of β-amyloid (Aβ) is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Curcumin has been reported to display anti-amyloidogenic activity, not only by inhibiting the formation of new Aβ aggregates, but also by disaggregating existing ones. However, the uptake of Curcumin into the brain is severely restricted by its low ability to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Therefore, novel strategies for a targeted delivery of Curcumin into the brain are highly desired. Here, we encapsulated Curcumin as active ingredient in PLGA (polylactide-co-glycolic-acid) nanoparticles (NPs), modified with g7 ligand for BBB crossing. We performed in depth analyses of possible toxicity of these NPs, uptake, and, foremost, their ability to influence Aβ pathology in vitro using primary hippocampal cell cultures. Our results show no apparent toxicity of the formulated NPs, but a significant decrease of Aβ aggregates in response to Curcumin loaded NPs. We thus conclude that brain delivery of Curcumin using BBB crossing NPs is a promising future approach in the treatment of AD.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)413-424
Number of pages12
JournalInternational Journal of Pharmaceutics
Volume526
Issue number1-2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jun 2017

Keywords

  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Amyloid
  • BBB targeting nanoparticles
  • Curcumin
  • Nanotechnology
  • Synapse

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