Curcuminoids Suppress the Growth of Pharynx and Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Cells through Induced Apoptosis

Yo Tsai Lin, Leng Fang Wang, Yi Chiang Hsu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the common malignant cancers in China, and radiotherapy or chemotherapy is the main therapy method for NPC. Curcuminoids (or curcumin), natural antioxidants, have been recently shown to produce a potent chemopreventive action against several types of cancer. They have also displayed antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. In the present study, the antiproliferation and induced apoptosis effects of curcuminoids have been investigated in Detroit 562 cells (human pharynx carcinoma) and HONE-1 (human nasopharyngeal carcinoma) cells. Results indicated that curcuminoids have produced an inhibition of cell proliferation as well as the activation of apoptosis in these cancer cells. Both effects were observed to increase in proportion with the dose of curcuminoids. The DNA fragmentation, caspase-3 activation,and NF-?B transcriptional factor activity have been studied. By these approaches, apoptosis was induced by curcuminoids in the pharynx and nasopharyngeal cancer cells via caspase-3-dependent pathway. However, a different dependency has been observed, whereas proliferation inhibition and apoptosis depend upon the amount of curcuminoid treatment in the cancer cells.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3765-3770
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Volume57
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 13 2009

Keywords

  • Apoptosis
  • Curcuminoids
  • Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
  • Chemistry(all)

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