Plant foods contain many bioactive compounds in addition to those which are traditionally considered as nutrients, such as phytochemicals. Among these, polyphenols like resveratrol, curcumin, quercetin, catechin represent one of the most attractive family of naturally bioactive molecules since many studies report their beneficial effects due to anti-oxidant, anti-microbial and anti-proliferative activities. Although these substances hold promises for supporting more conventional therapies, major drawbacks are represented by their low solubility, stability ad bioavailability. In the last years, nanotechnology has received considerable attention to enhance delivery of phytochemicals. Bioactive molecules can be loaded into biocompatible and biodegradable nanoparticles, which can enhance their absorption and bioavailability, protect them from degradation, enhance their stability, prolong circulation time, exhibit differential uptake efficiency in cancer cells and lower toxicity. Nanoemulsions are colloidal dispersions in which main components are oil, emulsifying agents, and aqueous phases. A variety of plant-derived essential oils can be used to prepare nanoemulsions and lipophilic phytochemicals can be incorporated in the hydrophobic core.
We have recently prepared and characterized functional oil-in-water (O/W) nanoemulsions (NE) with an average size of 100 nm , able to load and delivery resveratrol, a polyphenol with well known pleiotropic effects, in cancer cell lines of different origin. Our data, showing a strong reduction of the cell population after cell treatment with resveratrol-loaded NE (NE-RV), set the basis for investigating, in this research project, the mechanisms underlying the antiproliferative effects exerted by NE-RV and compare them to those activated by free resveratrol.
