Synergistic Anticancer Potential of Probiotics and Curcumin-Loaded Chitosan Nanoparticles against Colorectal Cancer

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is among the leading causes of cancer related mortality among populations in the world. Despite the mentioned progress in the traditional treatments e.g. chemotherapy, it has shown minimal efficacy due to the development of drug resistance and other serious side effects and of different lacks good targeting. The article discusses the synergistic anticancer activity of chitosan nanoparticle (NPs) loaded with probiotics and curcumin in the treatment of CRC. Curcumin is a natural bioactive compound with immense anticancer characteristics, nevertheless, curcumin possesses low bioavailability and low solubility. To counter such a limitation, curcumin is encased in chitosan-based nanoparticles, which, in addition, provides a controlled release of drugs and enhances its stability. There is also the addition of probiotics, which are attributed with their ability to balance the bioflora of the gut and improving the immune functionality, in order to increase the therapeutic effect of curcumin. In the paper, the cytotoxicity, drug delivery, and combinatorial anticancer studies of chitosan nanoparticles loaded with curcumin have been reported in vitro and in vivo using colorectal cells (HT-29) under cancer research. The results reveal that the anticancer potential of curcumin loaded nanoparticles with probiotics enhances significantly the effect of the former by modifying the tumor microenvironment and improving the bioavailability of the drug. This implies that the combination therapy was not only more efficient but also minimized systemic toxicity too hence the application of nanomedicine combination method of curcumin to be very effective in cancer therapy of the colorectal cancer.