Co-Delivery of Arsenotungstate Polyoxometalate and Curcumin Using Bis-Imidazolium Poly Ionic Liquid Nanocomposites for Boosting Anticancer Effects against Triple-negative Breast Cancer Cells

Novel nano-composites (NCs) of polyarsenotungstate (As₂W₁₉O₆₇, POM) in bis-imidazolium based poly ionic liquid (PolyIL) were developed for co-delivery of curcumin (CUR) and POM to triple-negative breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-231) for the first time. The anticancer activity of optimized NCs was evaluated against MDA-MB-231 cancer cells and HUVEC normal cells using the MTT assay. Cellular uptake was also evaluated on the MDA-MB-231 cell line. The optimized NCs had a particle size around 200 nm and a zeta potential of about + 22.4 mV. PolyIL NCs showed a pH-responsive independent drug release profile for CUR and POM. NCs had better anticancer activity (IC50: 40.49 µg/mL) than free POM (IC50: 95.35 µg/mL) without cytotoxicity against normal HUVEC cells. The cellular uptake was about 100% after 4 h. The CUR-POM@PolyIL NCs could surprisingly modulate the cytotoxicity of arsenotungstate polyoxometalate. These results are convincing enough to warrant further pre-clinical studies.