Acid Denaturation Inducing Self-Assembly of Curcumin-Loaded Hemoglobin Nanoparticles

• Published in: Materials Vol. 8; no. 12; pp. 8701 - 8713
• Main Authors: Wang, Kaikai, Wang, Juan, Hu, Wenwen, Zhang, Yifan, Zhi, Feng, Zhou, Zaigang, Wu, Jinhui, Hu, Yiqiao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI 11.12.2015; MDPI AG
• Subjects: cell uptake; drug carrier; hydrophobic forces; self-assemble; hydrophobic forces; self-assemble; drug carrier; cell uptake
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma8125486

Hemoglobin is a promising drug carrier but lacks extensive investigation. The chemical conjugation of hemoglobin and drugs is costly and complex, so we have developed curcumin-loaded hemoglobin nanoparticles (CCM-Hb-NPs) via self-assembly for the first time. Using the acid-denaturing method, we avoid introducing denaturants and organic solvents. The nanoparticles are stable with uniform size. We have conducted a series of experiments to examine the interaction of hemoglobin and CCM, including hydrophobic characterization, SDS-PAGE. These experiments substantiate that this self-assembly process is mainly driven by hydrophobic forces. Our nanoparticles achieve much higher cell uptake efficiency and cytotoxicity than free CCM solution . The uptake inhibition experiments also demonstrate that our nanoparticles were incorporated via the classic clathrin-mediated endocytosis pathway. These results indicate that hemoglobin nanoparticles formed by self-assembly are a promising drug delivery system for cancer therapy.