Curcumol simultaneously induces both apoptosis and autophagy in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells

Abstract

Autophagy is usually considered as a protective mechanism against cell death, and in the meantime, leads to cell injury even apoptosis. Apoptosis and autophagy are very closely connected and may cooperate, coexist, or antagonize each other on progressive occurrence of cell death triggered by natural compounds. Therefore, the interplay between the two modes of death is essential for the overall fate of cancer cells.Our previous study revealed that curcumol induced apoptosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cells. Recently, curcumol was found to induce autophagy in cancer cells. However, whether curcumol can induce NPC cells autophagy and the effects of autophagy on apoptosis remain elusive. In this study, we found that curcumol induced autophagy through AMPK/mTOR pathway in CNE-2 cells. Moreover, inhibiting autophagy by autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3-MA) or apoptosis inhibitor z-VAD-fmk significantly increased proliferation while attenuated apoptosis and autophagy compared with the curcumol 212 μM group. In contrast, combining curcumol with autophagy agonist rapamycin and apoptosis inducer MG132 synergized the apoptotic and autophagic effect of curcumol. Taken together, our study demonstrates that curcumol promotes autophagy in NPC via AMPK/mTOR pathway, induces autophagy enhances the activity of curcumol in NPC cells; the combination of autophagy inducer and curcumol can be a new therapeutic strategy for NPC.

Inhibition of XPO1 with KPT-330 induces autophagy-dependent apoptosis in gallbladder cancer by activating the p53/mTOR pathway

“…In different cancer cells, autophagy can act as either a tumor suppressor or a tumor promoter, with the specific state depending on the cancer cell environment [41]. Our results showed that autophagy could be detected after KPT-330 treatment.…”

Inhibition of XPO1 with KPT-330 induces autophagy-dependent apoptosis in gallbladder cancer by activating the p53/mTOR pathway

“…In different cancer cells, autophagy can act as either a tumor suppressor or a tumor promoter, with the speci c state depending on the cancer cell environment [41]. Our results showed that autophagy could be detected after KPT-330 treatment.…”

The molecular mechanism for inhibiting the growth of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells using polymethoxyflavonoids purified from pericarp of Citrus reticulata ‘Chachi’ via HSCCC

“…Among the aforementioned natural AMPK-activated drugs, curcumol, lupeol, and andrographolide are terpenoid compounds with low polarity. Curcumol-induced autophagy and apoptosis through the activation of the AMPK/mTOR pathway in CNE-2 cells ( Wang et al, 2021 ). Analogously, andrographolide suppressed the proliferation and induced the apoptosis of C666-1 cells through regulation of the LKB1/AMPK/mTOR signal pathway ( Wu et al, 2018 ).…”