Engineered an Ultrasmall Curcumin Oral Nanoformulation Restores Intestinal Integrity and Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis

Authors

Vivek Sharma, Thomas Jefferson UniversityFollow
Prateeksha Prateeksha
Balwant Paliya
Sateesh Gupta
Sarvendra Singh
Anand Anunay
Sushil Agrahari
Shailendra Singh
Chandana Rao
Saroj Barik
Brahma Singh

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1-2025

Comments

This article is the author's final published version in Materials Today Bio, Volume 35, December 2025, Article Number 102548.

The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtbio.2025.102548. Copyright © The Author(s).

Abstract

Antibiotic therapy for bacterial infections often disrupts gut microbiota (GM) and intestinal integrity, inducing chronic inflammation and inflammatory bowel diseases. An effective therapeutic intervention is urgently needed to alleviate the aforementioned adverse effects of antibiotics. Curcumin (CUR) reveals great potential to restore intestinal integrity and GM dysbiosis due to its strong antiinflammatory and prebiotic effects. However, the weak solubility and stability of CUR result in limited bioavailability and a short half-life, which restricts its clinical uses. An ultra-small CUR oral nanoformulation was created using a carboxylated galactomannan (cGM), facilitated by hydrogen bonding between the phenolic hydroxyl groups of CUR and the carboxyl groups present on cGM. The developed nanoformulation increased CUR stability both in vitro and in vivo, extended its retention period in the gastrointestinal tract, and enhanced its permeability across the mucus layer and intestinal epithelium to improve oral bioavailability of CUR. The nanoformulation attained notable therapeutic efficacy in restoring intestinal epithelial barrier dysfunction and GM dysbiosis, as validated in an antibiotic-induced in vivo model. This research highlights the benefits of cGM in creating a very stable and ultrasmall nanoformulation for CUR, offering a promising oral nanoplatform for the delivery of CUR.

Recommended Citation

Sharma, Vivek; Prateeksha, Prateeksha; Paliya, Balwant; Gupta, Sateesh; Singh, Sarvendra; Anunay, Anand; Agrahari, Sushil; Singh, Shailendra; Rao, Chandana; Barik, Saroj; and Singh, Brahma, "Engineered an Ultrasmall Curcumin Oral Nanoformulation Restores Intestinal Integrity and Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis" (2025). Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Faculty Papers. Paper 291.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/bmpfp/291

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

PubMed ID

41399353

Language

English