Enhanced effects of curcumin encapsulated in polycaprolactone-grafted oligocarrageenan nanomicelles, a novel nanoparticle drug delivery system

International audience ; One of the most effective strategies to enhance the bioavailability and the therapeutic effect of hydrophobicdrugs is the use of nanocarriers. We have usedκ-carrageenan extracted fromKappaphycus alvareziito produceoligocarrageenanviaan enzymatic degradation process. Polycaprolactone (PCL) chains were grafted onto theoligocarrageenans using a protection/deprotection technique yielding polycaprolactone-grafted oligocarra-geenan. The resulting amphiphilic copolymers formed spherical nanomicelles with a mean size of 187 ± 21 nm.Hydrophobic drugs such as curcumin were efficiently encapsulated in the micelles and released within 24–72 hin solution. The micelles were non-cytotoxic and facilitated the uptake of curcumin by endothelial EA-hy926cells. They also increased the anti-inflammatory effect of curcumin in TNF-alpha-induced inflammation ex-periments. Finally,in vivoexperiments supported a lack of toxicity in zebrafish and thus the potential use ofpolycaprolactone-grafted oligocarrageenan to improve the delivery of hydrophobic compounds to different or-gans, including liver, lung and brain as shown in mice.