Glutathione-bearing fluorescent polymer-curcumin conjugate enables simultaneous drug delivery and label-free cellular imaging
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Date
2015-09
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Polymer
Abstract
Curcumin is a natural polyphenol with potential anticancer property. However, the medicinal assets of
curcumin cannot be properly utilized due to its low aqueous solubility, instability and subsequent poor
bioavailability. Conjugation of curcumin to a suitable hydrophilic polymer is a useful approach for
augmenting the aqueous solubility of the drug. In addition, nano-structured materials with intrinsic
fluorescence property are of prime importance in the current biomedical domain. In this study, a novel
glutathione containing biodegradable, non-toxic and water soluble, fluorescent polymer was developed.
Curcumin was covalently conjugated to this polymer to fabricate nano-sized micelle forming fluorescent
polymer-curcumin conjugate. The ability of the entity as a safer curcumin delivery vehicle and label-free
cellular imaging probe was demonstrated in C6 glioma cells.
Description
Keywords
Glutathione Polymer-curcumin conjugates Cryo-TEM Confocal microscopy
Citation
Dey S, Ambattu LA, Hari PR, Rekha MR and Sreenivasan K. Glutathione-bearing fluorescent polymer-curcumin conjugate enables simultaneous drug delivery and label-free cellular imaging. Polymer. 2015;75:25-33