Curcumin Delivery by Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles Capped by Chitosan Glycerol Phosphate Hydrogel: Characterization and Cytotoxicity Effects

In this work, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) were synthesized and loaded by curcumin (MSNs-CU) and capped by chitosan glycerol phosphate hydrogel (CS/βGH/MSNs-CU). Both of CS/βGH/MSNs-CU and MSNs-CU were characterized and analyzed, then, the cell viability of epithelial breast tumor cells (MCF-7) and healthy primary human mammary fibroblasts (HPHMF) treated by these nanocarriers, free-CU and the CU dispersed in CS/βGH hydrogel were studied. The CU release of CS/βGH, CS/βGH/MSNs-CU, and MSNs-CU was studied in the simulated body fluid (SBF) and results showed CU release from CS/GP/CU, MSNs-CU and CS/βGP/MSNs-CU was 4, 13.19, 8.87% after 24h, respectively. Optimum loading and encapsulation efficiency percentages of CU into MSNs were obtained 25% and 99% in 24 h, respectively. The MTT assay showed MSNs, MSNs-CU, CU, CS/βGP, CS/βGP/CU, CS/βGP/MSNs-CU had no influence on HPHMF cells. Also, free-CU, MSNs-CU showed cytotoxicity in the concentrations upper than 100 µg/mL and 10 µg/mL against MCF-7 cells after 24h, respectively. No reduction of MCF-7 cell viability was observed in treated cells by CS/βGP/CU and CS/βGP/MSNs-CU after 24h or 48 h which can be attributed to trapping of CU in the cohesive network of hydrogel formed, thus, release of CU was so slowly in the treated cells or SBF.