Curcumin-loaded ultradeformable nanovesicles as a potential delivery system for breast cancer therapy

In the current study, the transdermal route has been investigated to deliver the poorly bioavailable drug; curcumin into the systemic circulation, aiming to target both superficial and subcutaneous tumors such as the breast tumors. Accordingly, different colloidal carriers viz. ultradeformable nanovesicles comprising various penetration enhancers were exploited. Curcumin-loaded deformable vesicles were prepared by the thin film hydration method followed by extrusion. Sodium cholate and Tween 80 were set as standard edge activators and Labrasol, Transcutol, limonene and oleic acid were the penetration enhancers that were evaluated for their efficacy in skin permeation. The particle size and zeta potential of the prepared vesicles were significantly affected by the type of surfactant/penetration enhancer. The polydispersity measurements showed uniform particle size distribution indicating the sufficiency of the extrusion cycles performed. Curcumin, as a hydrophobic molecule, was well accommodated within the lipid bilayers of the prepared vesicles with entrapment efficiency (EE%) percentages and drug loading percentages (DL%) as high as 93.91% and 7.04%, respectively. The ex-vivo permeation studies were performed on male albino mice skin mounted on Franz diffusion cells. Oleic acid and Transcutol exhibited comparable fluxes to sodium cholate and Tween 80 (∼16 μg cm^-2 h^-1), whereas the fluxes of Labrasol and limonene were significantly lower. Cytotoxicity studies were performed using MTT assay on human breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 cells). The results of the MTT assay demonstrated that oleic acid ultradeformable nanovesicles scored an IC₅₀ of 20 μg/ml which introduce these new curcumin-loaded nanovesicles as a successful delivery system for breast cancer therapy.