Potential Role of Curcumin and Its Nanoformulations to Treat Various Types of Cancers

Abstract

Cancer is a major burden of disease globally. Each year, tens of millions of people are diagnosed with cancer worldwide, and more than half of the patients eventually die from it. Significant advances have been noticed in cancer treatment, but the mortality and incidence rates of cancers are still high. Thus, there is a growing research interest in developing more effective and less toxic cancer treatment approaches. Curcumin (CUR), the major active component of turmeric (Curcuma longa L.), has gained great research interest as an antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory agent. This natural compound shows its anticancer effect through several pathways including interfering with multiple cellular mechanisms and inhibiting/inducing the generation of multiple cytokines, enzymes, or growth factors including IκB kinase β (IκKβ), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), signal transducer, and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), cyclooxygenase II (COX-2), protein kinase D1 (PKD1), nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), epidermal growth factor, and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). Interestingly, the anticancer activity of CUR has been limited primarily due to its poor water solubility, which can lead to low chemical stability, low oral bioavailability, and low cellular uptake. Delivering drugs at a controlled rate, slow delivery, and targeted delivery are other very attractive methods and have been pursued vigorously. Multiple CUR nanoformulations have also been developed so far to ameliorate solubility and bioavailability of CUR and to provide protection to CUR against hydrolysis inactivation. In this review, we have summarized the anticancer activity of CUR against several cancers, for example, gastrointestinal, head and neck, brain, pancreatic, colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers. In addition, we have also focused on the findings obtained from multiple experimental and clinical studies regarding the anticancer effect of CUR in animal models, human subjects, and cancer cell lines.

RETRACTED: Potential Role of Natural Products to Combat Radiotherapy and Their Future Perspectives

“…In prostate cancer cell lines and clinical samples, constitutive activation of the STAT3 and NF-B signaling pathways has been demonstrated [ 27 , 28 ]. In CL-5 xenograft tumors, curcumin has also been shown to promote apoptosis and cause down-regulation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), protein kinase B (Akt), and cMET cyclin D1 [ 29 , 30 ]. Curcumin has been shown to inhibit cell proliferation, cell cycle arrest, and stimulate apoptosis by modulating other transcription factors like activator protein 1 (AP-1), early growth response protein 1 (Erg-1), p53, -catenin, Notch-1, hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1), and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPAR-α) [ 31 ].…”

Doxorubicin Anticancer Drug Monitoring by ds-DNA-Based Electrochemical Biosensor in Clinical Samples

“…The use of chemotherapy and anticancer drugs is the best and most important way to deal with this deadly disease [ 3 , 4 ]. Breast cancer is one of the most important and prevalent kinds of cancer that has been diagnosed [ 5 ]. Doxorubicin is one of the most important and extensively used drugs with an appropriate response for the treatment of breast cancer, which has been used for this purpose for many years [ 6 , 7 ].…”

Effects of Curcumin Analogues DMC and EF24 in Combination with the Cytokine TRAIL against Kidney Cancer

“…It is known that curcumin presents a wide variety of cellular targets that play a role in key functions such as cell survival and apoptosis [38][39][40]. In ACHN, curcumin in combination with TRAIL was shown to upregulate the expression of the TRAIL receptor DR4, which could explain the decrease in cell viability after combination treatment.…”