Lee Jin-Sun, Wang Tsu-Shing, Lin Ming Cheng, Lin Wei-Wen, Yang Jaw-Ji
School of Dentistry, Chung-Shan Medical University, Taichung 40242, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Department of Biomedical Science, Chung-Shan Medical University, Taichung 40242, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Chin J Physiol. 2017 Oct 31;60(5):267-274. doi: 10.4077/CJP.2017.BAG514.
Curcumin, a popular yellow pigment of the dietary spice turmeric, has been reported to inhibit cell growth and to induce apoptosis in a wide variety of cancer cells. Although numerous studies have investigated anticancer effects of curcumin, the precise molecular mechanism of action remains unidentified. Whereas curcumin mediates cell survival and apoptosis through mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) signaling cascades, its impact on the upstream regulation of MAPK is unclear. The leucine-zipper and sterile-α motif kinase alpha (ZAKα), a mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase (MAP3K), activates the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and NF-κB pathway. This paper investigated the prospective involvement of ZAKα in curcumin-induced effects on cancer cells. Our results suggest that the antitumor activity of curcumin is mediated via a mechanism involving inhibition of ZAKα activity.
姜黄素是饮食香料姜黄中一种常见的黄色色素，据报道它能抑制多种癌细胞的生长并诱导其凋亡。尽管众多研究已对姜黄素的抗癌作用进行了调查，但其确切的分子作用机制仍不明晰。虽然姜黄素通过丝裂原活化蛋白激酶（MAPK）和核因子-κB（NF-κB）信号级联反应介导细胞存活和凋亡，但其对MAPK上游调节的影响尚不清楚。亮氨酸拉链和无菌α基序激酶α（ZAKα）是一种丝裂原活化蛋白激酶激酶激酶（MAP3K），可激活c-Jun氨基末端激酶（JNK）和NF-κB途径。本文研究了ZAKα在姜黄素诱导的癌细胞效应中的潜在作用。我们的结果表明，姜黄素的抗肿瘤活性是通过一种涉及抑制ZAKα活性的机制介导的。
