Fabrication and evaluation of mannose decorated curcumin loaded nanostructured lipid carriers for hepatocyte targeting: In vivo hepatoprotective activity in Wistar rats

Curcumin is a well-recognized antioxidant phytoactive isolated from the rhizomes of Curcuma longa. Numerous landmark investigations have proved the antioxidant and hepatoprotective potential of curcumin. The aim of present study was to target curcumin loaded nanocarriers to hepatocytes using asialoglycoprotein receptors targeting strategy. Mannose, a water-soluble carbohydrate, was hydrophobized by anchoring stearylamine with an objective to conjugate mannose on the surface of curcumin loaded nanostructured lipid carriers for targeting asialoglycoprotein receptors on hepatocytes. Mannose conjugated stearylamine was synthesized and characterized using various analytical techniques. The synthesized targeting ligand was incorporated curcumin loaded nanostructured lipid carriers and characterized by photon correlation spectroscopy. Zeta potential measurement was used to confirm the conjugation of the synthesized ligand to the surface of drug-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers. CCl₄ induced hepatotoxicity in male Wistar rats was used as an experimental animal model to evaluate the hepatoprotective potential of formulated drug encapsulated nanostructured lipid carriers. The hepatoprotective potential was assessed by measuring serum liver injury markers and oxidative stress parameters in the liver post–mitochondrial supernatant. Mannose conjugated nanostructured lipid carriers showed acceptable particle size which revealed its suitability for hepatocyte targeting. In addition to this, mannose conjugated nanocarriers revealed significantly better (p ​< ​0.05) reduction of serum liver injury markers and proinflammatory cytokines compared to the unconjugated one which confirmed hepatocytes targeting potential of the synthesized ligand. Asialoglycoprotein receptors targeting could be a landmark strategy for hepatocyte targeting. Thus, the synthesized mannose anchored stearylamine could be a promising novel targeting ligand having hepatocyte targeting potential.