Table 3.

In Vitro and In Vivo Anticancer Potential and Mechanism of Action of Various Curcumin Nanoformulations

Curcumin Nanoformulations	In Vitro Cytotoxicity Profile	Molecular Mechanism	In Vivo Results	Reference
PLGA	IC50 (50% cell growth inhibitory concentration) of curcumin-loaded PLGA nanoparticles was between 20 μM and 22.5 μM while free curcumin ranged from 32 μM to 34 μM, in LNCaP, PC-3, and DU145 cancer cell lines	Inhibition of NF-κB function	Not available	[42]
PLGA	IC50 of curcumin nanoparticles was less than 5 μM in human leukemia (KBM-5 and Jurkat), prostate (DU145), breast (MDA-MB-231), colon (HCT116) and esophageal (SEG-1) cancer cells	Do not induce NF-κB activation expression of cyclin D1, MMP-9, and VEGF	Half-life of curcumin NPs (2.5 mg/Kg mice) was 1.75 longer than that of curcumin	[44]
PLGA	Nanocurcumin is as effective as curcumin in HeLa cells, SKBr3, and A549 cells	Increased Annexin V staining Cleaved PARP expression Down regulation of the activation of NF-κB	Not available	[81]
MPEG-PCL micelle	IC50 of free curcumin and Cur-MPEG-PCL micelles was 3.95 mg mL−1 and 5.78 mg mg mL−1, respectively	Not available	Up to 2-fold increase in CUR concentration was observed in plasma of rats Inhibited the growth of subcutaneous C-26 colon carcinoma in xenograft mouse model	[61]
β-cyclodextrin self-assembly	IC50 of self-assemblies of curcumin was 16.8 μM and 17.6 μM(C4-2 cells and DU145 cells, respectively) which is slightly lower than free curcumin	Increased cleaved PARP expression	Improved CUR levels serum concentrations up to 2-fold (Unpublished data with Subhash Chauhan Lab)	[87]
Poly(β-cyclodextrin) self-assembly	Very close IC50 values for both self-assembly and free curcumin in C4-2, DU145 and PC3 cancer cells	The PARP cleavage caused by PCD30 is much greater than free curcumin	Not available	[88]
poly(butyl cyanoacrylate) nano-particles	IC50 was observed approximately 15_μg/mL for HepG2, Bel7402 and Huh7 cells	Down regulation of COX-2 and VEGF expression	2.2 fold decrease in tumor volume in HepG2 xenograft-bearing mice	[127]
Dendrosome	2-fold reduction in IC50 with dendrosome curcumin in WEHI-164 (16.8 μM and 7.5 μM) and A431 cells (19.2 and 14.3 μM) in 24 and 48 h time	Increased Annexin V stain Cleaved PARP (apoptosis)	Tumor growth was significantly suppressed in mice treated with dendrosomal curcumin	[47]
Thermo-sensitive nanocarrier	Formulation showed a specific toxicity cancer cell lines (MCF-7, KB, and PC-3) and non toxic to L929.	Increase apoptosis (PI and Annexin-A binding) Loss of mitochondrial membrane potential	Not available	[51]
Folate-modified self-microemulsifying drug delivery system	18.27, 36.69, 30.4 μM and 20.57, 38.59, 25.62 μM in Hela and HT-29 cancer cells for folate CUR-nanoemulsion, CUR-emulsion and free curcumin, respectively	Not available	In situ colon perfused rats showed absorption of curcumin increased from 58.41% to 73.38% in 6 h with folate conjugated formulation.	[131]
NanoCurc™	IC50 ranged between 10–15 μM for BxPC3, ASPC-1, PL-11 and XPA-1	Blocks the activation of NF-κB Downregulation of steady state transcripts of multiple pro-inflammatory cytokines	5 fold increased concentration was observed in pancreas. 3-fold or no growth in tumor was observed in mice with NanoCurc™ in combination with gemcitabine	[52, 117]
PEG-chlorestrol	Cm/PEG-cholesterol based curcumin system showed IC50 1 μM more than free curcumin	Not available	Not available	[62]
NanoCurc™	Almost no growth was observed in DAOY and D283Med, and the glioblastoma neurosphere lines HSR-GBM1 andJHH-GBM14	Blocked the STAT3 and Hedgehog signaling G(2)/M arrest and apoptotic induction	0.5% of the injected material was localized in the brain	[115, 116]
Amphiphilic mPEG-palmitic acid polymer	IC50 of curcumin, 14.32 μM, and nanocurcumin, 15.58 μM, were observed in HeLa cells	In vitro enzyme-catalyzed drug release enhances the anticancer activity	Not available	[132]