Molecular Interactions for the Curcumin-Polymer Complex with Enhanced Anti-Inflammatory Effects

The molecular interactions between compound and polymeric carriers are expected to highly contribute to high drug load and good physical stability of solid dispersions.

In this study, a series of amorphous solid dispersions (ASD) of Curcumin (Cur) were prepared with different polymers by the solvent evaporation method. With the carrier polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), the amorphous solid dispersion system exhibits a better solubility and stability than that with poloxamers and HP-β-CD due to the strong drug-polymer interaction. The drug/polymer interaction and their binding sites were investigated by combined experimental (XRD, DSC, FTIR, SEM, Raman, and 1H-NMR) and molecular dynamics simulation techniques.

The Curcumin ASD demonstrated enhanced bioavailability by 11-fold and improved anti-inflammatory activities by the decrease in cytokine production (MMP-9, IL-1β, IL-6, VEGF, MIP-2, and TNF-α) compared to the raw Curcumin. The integration of experimental and modeling techniques is a powerful tool for the rational design of formulation development.

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Article Information: Yan He, Hongfei Liu, Wangqing Bian,Yue Liu, Xinyang Liu, Shijing Ma, Xi Zheng, Zhiyun Du, Kun Zhang, Defang Ouyang; Pharmaceutics, 2019