Curcumin loaded biocompatible polymer embedded silver nanoparticles: A photophysical study on new photosensitizer composite

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 whose photosensitizing properties can be enhanced by associating it with pharmaceutical excipients like Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and Polyethylene glycol (PEG). 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. The results showed that there is an effective the solubilization and bioavailability of CUR is improvised by using PVP and PEG as well as in mixed polymer system. The observed fluorescence quenching in the presence of AgNPs indicates a strong interaction between CUR consequently reduces the CUR fluorescence. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis revealed that the Z-average of AgNPs was 39.12 nm, which increased to 49.50 nm upon CUR addition. Zeta potential measurements showed a reduction from -32.38 mV (AgNPs) to -23.10 mV (CUR-AgNPs), indicating strong CUR–AgNP interaction.