Synthesis and evaluation of anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive potentials of biopolymer based curcumin nanoparticle construct: In silico, in vitro and in vivo studies

The present study focused on the synthesis and characterization of curcumin nanoparticles (GKCNP) using a biopolymer Gum kondagogu, which acts as reducing, stabilizing and capping agent. The synthesized GKCNP are well dispersed, circular in shape with a size of 95 +/- 20 nm and exhibited enhanced drug release profile. Further, the anti-inflammatory potentials of GKCNP and curcumin were carried out in in silico, in vitro and in vivo studies. Diclofenac was used as a reference standard for comparison.The in-silico studies emphasizing that curcumin exhibited highest binding score of -9.2 kcal mol-1 against COX -2 protein but not COX -1, demonstrating the antiinflammatory activity may be due to inhibition of COX -2 enzyme. Therefore, the in vitro studies were carried out against COX -2 enzyme specifically. For GKCNP, the percent inhibition of COX -2 enzyme were found to be 89% whereas, for curcumin and diclofenac as 62 and 85%, signifyingcurcumin in nanoform acts as a potent COX -2 enzyme inhibitor when compared to pure curcumin.The carrageenan induced paw edema and tail flick assessments revealed that the test compounds GKCNP, curcumin and diclofenac exhibited reduction of edema in a linear pattern in second phase, confirming that the mechanism of actioninvolves reduction of prostaglandins through inhibition of cyclooxygenase2.