In vitro preparation and characterization of amorphous calcium carbonate nanoparticles for applications in curcumin delivery

The development of high drug loading and sustained release nanoparticles by simple and economical methods is significant for the treatment of diseases. Amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) is an ideal drug delivery system because of its excellent pH responsiveness, biocompatibility and biodegradability. In this work, ACC nanoparticles were successfully precipitated in ethanol–calcium solutions using ammonium carbonate as the internal source of CO 2 , which exhibited a relatively narrow size distribution in range of 10–200 nm. The microscopic morphology, amorphous characters, porous structure and thermal behavior of resultants were investigated by electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller and thermogravimetric analysis, respectively. In vitro drug release assay showed that ACC nanoparticles had high loading capacity of curcumin (Cur) and favorable drug release properties. Furthermore, ACC-Cur showed excellent abilities to scavenge free radicals, protect Cur stability and damage A549 cells, providing a broadened space for the applications of this material in the fields of biomedical or food.