Abstract
Curcumin is a polyphenol, derived from the plant Curcuma longa that has promising anticancer properties in breast, colon, pancreas and some other cancer types. We recently demonstrated that the metastatic potential of breast cancer cells is strongly reduced upon treatment with Curcumin in a murine model of hematogenous metastasis: 68% of the mice treated had no or few metastases as opposed to 17% of the untreated mice.
In order to elucidate its anti‐tumoral effects in prostate cancer, we used three human prostate cancer cell lines of clear defined and graduated tumorigenicity (LnCaP<DU145>PC3) for our studies. In a first approach, we intended to obtain a complete picture of Curcumin‐responsive genes and therefore we performed gene expression profiling (GeneChip Arrays Affymetrix) of Curcumin‐treated cells versus non‐treated cells followed by statistical analysis. Thereby we found 71 genes whose expression was significantly altered among which 8 genes were down‐regulated. Treatment of prostate cancer cells with Curcumin reduced tumor cell proliferation (BrdU assay) and invasion (Matrigel assay) in a time and dose dependent manner. Furthermore expression of matrix‐degrading enzymes (MMPs) which is a prerequisite for matrix degradation was significantly down‐regulated on transcript as well as on protein level.
The underlying regulation mechanism involves the survival associated NFγB signaling pathway: Fluorescent translocation assays clearly demonstrated that Curcumin inhibits p65 translocation into the nucleus of the tumor cells, which in consequence leads to diminished transcription and expression of tumor progression related genes and gene products resulting in the induction of apoptosis.
Taken together, these features make Curcumin a promising drug for cancer chemoprevention and antitumor therapy of prostate cancer.
Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2010;3(1 Suppl):A147.
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