Department of Stomatology, First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College, Anhui, China.
J Cell Biochem. 2011 Apr;112(4):1055-65. doi: 10.1002/jcb.23019.
Curcumin has been reported to inhibit cell growth and induce apoptosis in oral cancer cells. Although many studies have been done to uncover the mechanisms by which curcumin exerts its antitumor activity, the precise molecular mechanisms remain to be unclear. In the present study, we assessed the effects of curcumin on cell viability and apoptosis in oral cancer. For mechanistic studies, we used multiple cellular and molecular approaches such as gene transfection, real-time RT-PCR, Western blotting, invasion assay, and ELISA. For the first time, we found a significant reduction in cell viability in curcumin-treated cells, which was consistent with induction of apoptosis and also associated with down-regulation of Notch-1 and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB). Taken together, we conclude that the down-regulation of Notch-1 by curcumin could be an effective approach, which will cause down-regulation of NF-κB, resulting in the inhibition of cell growth and invasion. These results suggest that antitumor activity of curcumin is mediated through a novel mechanism involving inactivation of Notch-1 and NF-κB signaling pathways.
姜黄素已被报道可抑制口腔癌细胞的生长并诱导其凋亡。尽管已有许多研究试图揭示姜黄素发挥其抗肿瘤活性的机制，但确切的分子机制仍不清楚。在本研究中，我们评估了姜黄素对口腔癌细胞活力和凋亡的影响。为了进行机制研究，我们使用了多种细胞和分子方法，如基因转染、实时 RT-PCR、Western blot、侵袭试验和 ELISA。我们首次发现姜黄素处理后的细胞活力显著降低，这与诱导凋亡一致，并且与 Notch-1 和核因子-κB（NF-κB）的下调有关。总之，我们得出结论，姜黄素下调 Notch-1 可能是一种有效的方法，它将导致 NF-κB 的下调，从而抑制细胞生长和侵袭。这些结果表明，姜黄素的抗肿瘤活性是通过一种涉及 Notch-1 和 NF-κB 信号通路失活的新机制介导的。
