Novel Curcumin loaded nanoparticles engineered for Blood-Brain Barrier crossing and able to disrupt Abeta aggregates

The formation of extracellular aggregates built up by deposits of beta-amyloid (A beta) is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Curcumin has been reported to display anti-amyloidogenic activity, not only by inhibiting the formation of new A beta aggregates, but also by disaggregating existing ones. However, the uptake of Curcumin into the brain is severely restricted by its low ability to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Therefore, novel strategies for a targeted delivery of Curcumin into the brain are highly desired. Here, we encapsulated Curcumin as active ingredient in PLGA (polylactide-co-glycolic-acid) nano particles (NPs), modified with g7 ligand for BBB crossing. We performed in depth analyses of possible toxicity of these NPs, uptake, and, foremost, their ability to influence A beta pathology in vitro using primary hippocampal cell cultures. Our results show no apparent toxicity of the formulated NPs, but a significant decrease of A beta aggregates in response to Curcumin loaded NPs. We thus conclude that brain delivery of Curcumin using BBB crossing NPs is a promising future approach in the treatment of AD. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.