Chemopreventive potential of curcumin in prostate cancer

Abstract

The long latency and high incidence of prostate carcinogenesis provides the opportunity to intervene with chemoprevention in order to prevent or eradicate prostate malignancies. We present here an overview of the chemopreventive potential of curcumin (diferuloylmethane), a well-known natural compound that exhibits therapeutic promise for prostate cancer. In fact, it interferes with prostate cancer proliferation and metastasis development through the down-regulation of androgen receptor and epidermal growth factor receptor, but also through the induction of cell cycle arrest. It regulates the inflammatory response through the inhibition of pro-inflammatory mediators and the NF-kappaB signaling pathway. These results are consistent with this compound's ability to up-induce pro-apoptotic proteins and to down-regulate the anti-apoptotic counterparts. Alone or in combination with TRAIL-mediated immunotherapy or radiotherapy, curcumin is also reported to be a good inducer of prostate cancer cell death by apoptosis. Curcumin appears thus as a non-toxic alternative for prostate cancer prevention, treatment or co-treatment.

Effects of cyclohexanone analogues of curcumin on growth, apoptosis and NF-κB activity in PC-3 human prostate cancer cells

“…Curcumin suppressed cell proliferation or induced apoptosis in cultured prostate cancer cells and other types of cancer cells (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10). Curcumin also inhibited prostate carcinogenesis (11). Studies from our laboratory and those of other authors have demonstrated enhanced anticancer activities of curcumin when combined with other anticancer agents (12)(13)(14).…”

Anti-proliferative potential of curcumin in androgen-dependent prostate cancer cells occurs through modulation of the Wingless signaling pathway

“…Curcumin (diferuloylmethane), from the roots of Curcuma longa and well characterized for its anti-carcinogenic, anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic and anti-oxidant properties (12,13) was also shown to affect the Wnt signaling especially in colon, gastric, intestinal and breast cancer cells (14)(15)(16)(17). Studies evaluating the effect of curcumin on prostate cancer cell proliferation mainly focused on the impact of this natural compound on epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), on cyclins implicated in cell cycle and on phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase (PI3)/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) (18). Here we evaluate the effect of curcumin on prostate cancer cell proliferation by focusing on cell cycle and Wnt/ß-catenin in both androgen-dependent and independent prostate cancer cells, representative respectively of the early localized and late metastatic stages of prostate cancer development (19).…”

Effects of Curcumin Analogues for Inhibiting Human Prostate Cancer Cells and the Growth of Human PC-3 Prostate Xenografts in Immunodeficient Mice

“…Numerous studies have demonstrated the anticancer activity of curcumin and curcumin analogues in animal models [2][3][4][5][6][7] as well as growth inhibition and apoptosis induction in a variety of cancer cell lines in vitro. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] However, the clinical efficacy of curcumin is limited, which is likely due to its low bioavailability. [17][18][19] We have previously reported on the synthesis and evaluation of sixty-one curcumin-related compounds for inhibitory effects on cultured prostate cancer cells, pancreatic cancer cells and colon cancer cells.…”