Antiviral Action of Curcumin Encapsulated in Nanoemulsion against Four Serotypes of Dengue Virus

Background: Curcumin has been used as a traditional medicine showing antiinflammatory, antimicrobial, and antiviral properties. Despite the promising potentials, curcumin-based drug development is hindered due to its poor solubility and cell uptake. Objective: This study aims to produce curcumin nanoemulsion (nanocurcumin) and evaluate its physical characteristics and in vitro cell cytotoxicity and antiviral activity against dengue virus (DENV). Method: Nanocurcumin was generated by self-nanoemulsion technique. Cytotoxicity was determined using MTT assay in A549 cell line. Anti-DENV properties were determined by calculation of inhibitory concentration 50 (IC50) and plaque assay. Results: The resulting nanoemulsion showed uniform droplet size distribution with the average droplet size of 40.85 ± 0.919 nm. Nanocurcumin exhibited higher cell cytotoxicity compared to curcumin solution and may be explained by better cell uptake. Nanocurcumin treatment suppressed DENV growth, although no significant difference observed compared to the curcumin solution counterpart. Greater virus reduction was observed for DENV-1 and DENV-2. Conclusion: The synthesis of nanocurcumin improved curcumin physicochemical properties with potential as antiviral against DENV.