A supramolecular curcumin vesicle and its application in controlling curcumin release

Curcumin is a safe and nontoxic natural potential antitumor drug. However, its extremely low aqueous solubility severely limits its clinical application. We designed a supramolecular curcumin vesicle based on different curcumin-cyclodextrin amphiphiles, which could greatly enhance the aqueous solubility of curcumin up to 7000-fold. The vesicles can exist for about one month in aqueous solution at around 20 °C, showing a certain colloidal stability. The curcumin-β-cyclodextrin vesicles were identified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV–vis spectrum and 1H NMR were further employed to study the formation mechanism of the vesicles. Curcumin vesicles were also prepared when different host molecules were employed as the hydrophilic heads of the supramolecular amphiphiles. Finally, curcumin could be controllably released with the disruption of the vesicles when the external stimuli, including competitive guest molecules, enzymes and copper ions were added into the vesicles system.