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Curcumin - Potent turmeric spice blocks growth of
melanoma
Jul 12, 2005, 13:13, Reviewed by: Dr.
"The antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and
anti-carcinogenic properties of curcumin derived from
turmeric are undergoing intense research here and at
other places worldwide," says one of the study's
authors, Bharat B. Aggarwal, Ph.D., professor of
cancer medicine in the Department of Experimental
Therapeutics.
By University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center,
Curcumin, the pungent yellow spice found in both
turmeric and curry powders, blocks a key biological
pathway needed for development of melanoma and other
cancers, say researchers from The University of Texas
M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
The study, to be published in the August 15, 2005
issue of the journal Cancer, but available on line at
12:01 a.m. (EDT) on Monday, July 11, demonstrates how
curcumin stops laboratory strains of melanoma from
proliferating and pushes the cancer cells to commit
suicide.
It does this, researchers say, by shutting down
nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB), a powerful protein
known to promote an abnormal inflammatory response
that leads to a variety of disorders, including
arthritis and cancer.
The study is the latest to suggest that curcumin has
potent anticancer powers, say the researchers.
"The antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and
anti-carcinogenic properties of curcumin derived from
turmeric are undergoing intense research here and at
other places worldwide," says one of the study's
authors, Bharat B. Aggarwal, Ph.D., professor of
cancer medicine in the Department of Experimental
Therapeutics.
At M. D. Anderson, for example, dramatic results from
laboratory studies have led to two ongoing Phase I
human clinical trials, testing the ability of daily
capsules of curcumin powder to retard growth of
pancreatic cancer and multiple myeloma. Another Phase
I trial is planned for patients with breast cancer,
and given this news of curcumin's activity in
melanoma, animal studies will soon begin, Aggarwal
says.
Ground from the root of the Curcuma longa plant,
curcumin is a member of the ginger family. It has long
been utilized in India and other Asian nations for
multiple uses: as a food-preservative, a coloring
agent, a folk medicine to cleanse the body, and as a
spice to flavor food (two to five percent of turmeric
is curcumin, for example).
While researchers had thought curcumin primarily has
anti-inflammatory properties, the growing realization
that cancer can result from inflammation has spurred
mounting interest in the spice as an anti-cancer
agent, Aggarwal says. He adds that another fact has
generated further excitement: "The incidence of the
top four cancers in the U.S. - colon, breast,
prostate, and lung - is ten times lower in India," he
says.
This work is just the latest by M. D. Anderson
researchers to show how curcumin can inhibit cancer
growth. "Curcumin affects virtually every tumor
biomarker that we have tried," says Aggarwal. "It
works through a variety of mechanisms related to
cancer development. We, and others, previously found
that curcumin down regulates EGFR activity that
mediates tumor cell proliferation, and VEGF that is
involved in angiogenesis. Besides inhibiting NF-kB,
curcumin was also found to suppress STAT3 pathway that
is also involved in tumorigenesis. Both these pathways
play a central role in cell survival and
proliferation."
He said that an ability to suppress numerous
biological routes to cancer development is important
if an agent is to be effective. "Cells look at
everything in a global way, and inhibiting just one
pathway will not be effective," says Aggarwal.
In this study, the researchers treated three different
melanoma cell lines with curcumin and assessed the
activity of NF-kB, as well the protein, known as "IKK"
that switches NF-kB "on." The spice kept both proteins
from being activated, so worked to stop growth of the
melanoma, and it also induced "apoptosis," or
programmed death, in the cells.
Surprisingly, it didn't matter how much curcumin was
used, says the researchers. "The NF-kB machinery is
suppressed by both short exposures to high
concentrations of curcumin as well as by longer
exposure to lower concentrations of curcumin," they
say in their study. Given that other studies have
shown curcumin is non-toxic, these results should be
followed by a test of the spice in both animal models
of melanoma and in human trials, they say.
- August 15, 2005 issue of the journal Cancer
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