The use of cytotoxic chemotherapic agents is the most common method for the treatment of metastatic
cancers. Poor water solubility and low efficiency of chemotherapic agents are among the major hurdles of effective
chemotherapy treatments.
Curcumin and
paclitaxel are well-known chemotherapic agents with poor water solubility and undesired side effects. In this study, a novel
drug nanocarrier system was formulated by encapsulating
curcumin and
paclitaxel in poly(β-
cyclodextrin triazine) (PCDT) for the
therapy of four
cancer models; ovarian, lung, prostate, and
breast cancer. Cell viability and colony formation assays revealed enhanced
curcumin cytotoxicity upon complexation.
Annexin V apoptotic studies showed that the PCDT complexation improved
curcumin induced apoptosis in human
ovarian cancer cell lines A2780 and SKOV-3, human nonsmall cell lung
carcinoma cell line H1299, and human
prostate cancer line DU-145, while no significant effect was observed with
paclitaxel/PCDT complexation. The bioactivity of combining
curcumin and
paclitaxel was also investigated. A synergism was found between
curcumin and
paclitaxel, particularly when complexed with PCDT on A2780, SKOV-3, and H1299
cancer cell lines.