By Catherine Abbott, M.P.S.
Researchers at the Egyptian Drug Authority, Horus University in Egypt, and the Egyptian National Research Centre have shown a promising method for the delivery of curcumin.
Curcumin has been shown to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antiviral properties, but it has very low water solubility and thus low absorption into the body for therapeutic effects. This study investigates the use of nonionic surfactants to form bicelles as an oral drug delivery route.
Four nonionic surfactants were used in this experiment. Two of those surfactants created bicelles, and the curcumin dissolution profile increased with the presence of those bicelles. The researchers recommend further studies “to investigate other surfactants for their viability to form bicelles where the negatively charged phosphate group of phosphatidylcholine is kept unshielded.”
The successful therapeutic delivery of curcumin could also be a treatment for COVID-19.
Read the full open access article in AAPS PharmSciTech: Scrutinizing the Feasibility of Nonionic Surfactants to Form Isotropic Bicelles of Curcumin: a Potential Antiviral Candidate Against COVID-19, by Dina B. Mahmoud, Egyptian Drug Authority; Mohamed Mofreh Bakr, Egyptian Drug Authority; Ahmed A. Al-karmalawy, Horus University-Egypt; Yassmin Moatasim, National Research Centre, Egypt; Ahmed El Taweel, National Research Centre, Egypt; and Ahmed Mostafa, National Research Centre, Egypt.