The combination of cytostatics (e.g., doxorubicin) with natural compounds such as curcumin can be an effective strategy in treating malignancies. Curcumin enhances doxorubicin's anticancer effects, but curcumin solubility is very low. Nanofibers are promising drug delivery systems, typically loaded with drugs (into them) during electrospinning. However, modifying their surface with hydrogels containing anticancer agents may increase therapeutic efficacy. Therefore, the modification of nanostrips with curcumin and doxorubicin was a part of this study. The surface of commercially available nanostrips was modified with hydrogels and HP-β-CD containing a doxorubicin and curcumin. Upon incubation of these modified nanostrips in a buffer solution, the majority of the loaded agents were released, achieving concentrations of 190 μM for curcumin and 15 μM for doxorubicin. These concentrations were sometimes higher than the effective doses represented by the IC 50 values for colorectal cancer cell lines (DLD1, HCT116, LS147, and SW620) and pancreatic cancer cell lines (PANC1, Patu8902, AsPC1, and BxPC3). In addition, a combined dose of 27 μM curcumin and 1 μM doxorubicin resulted in the disintegration of primary human colorectal carcinoma organoids. • New methodology for the surface modification of nanofiber by drugs is presented. • Modified nanofiber was characterized by SEM and FTIR. • In the PBS (10 ml) concentration released curcumin and doxorubicin was 190 and 15 μM. • Effective dose against colorectal and pancreatic cancer cells was 27 and 1 μM. • Its application disintegrates primary colorectal carcinoma organoids.
Dytrych et al. (Sun,) studied this question.