Curcumin Loaded Biocompatible Polymer Embedded Silver Nanoparticles: A Photophysical Study on New Photosensitizer Composite

Abstract

Abstract Drug delivery is a process that involves effective therapeutic delivery of drugs that we usually use in medical treatments like Photodynamic therapy (PDT) as adopted for cancer treatment. Polyphenyl curcumin (CUR) is one of the major ingredients of rhizome of turmeric. CUR is a photosensitizer molecule which is less soluble in water due to hydrophobicity whose photosensitizing properties can be enhanced by associating it with pharmaceutical excipients like Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and Polyethylene glycol (PEG). This system will have a better compatibility and the association can enhance the solubility of CUR as well as its bioavailability. Nanoparticles have been widely used in various fields of research due to their unique properties. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are found to have anti-proliferative properties that may increase the ease of drug delivery at the site of physiological action when associated with the drug molecule. The association of CUR with AgNP can be probable photosensitizer system, which can be used in PDT and PDD. In the current work, the fluorescence property of CUR was used to evaluate the AgNP-embedded CUR. The effect of PVP and PEG on AgNP–CUR was analyzed through photophysical studies.