Lee Hwan Hee, Cho Hyosun
College of Pharmacy, Duksung Women's University, Seoul 01369, Republic of Korea.
Innovative Drug Center, Duksung Women's University, Seoul 01369, Republic of Korea.
J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2018 Jun 28;28(6):874-882. doi: 10.4014/jmb.1801.01074.
Curcumin is known to possess various biological functions, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and anti-cancer activities. Natural killer (NK) cells are large lymphocytes that directly kill cancer cells. However, many aggressive cancers, including breast cancer, were reported to escape the successful killing of NK cells in a tumor microenvironment. In this study, we investigated the anti-cancer effect of curcumin in coculture of human breast carcinoma MDA-MB-231 and NK (NK-92) cells. We found that curcumin had an immune-stimulatory effect on NK-92 by increasing the surface expression of the CD16⁺ and CD56 population of NK-92. We confirmed that the cytotoxic effect of NK-92 on MDA-MB-231 was significantly enhanced in the presence of curcumin, which was highly associated with the activation of Stat4 and Stat5 proteins in NK-92. Finally, this improved anticancer effect of curcumin was correlated with decreased expression of pErk and PI3K in MDA-MB-231.
姜黄素具有多种生物学功能，包括抗炎、抗氧化和抗癌活性。自然杀伤（NK）细胞是直接杀死癌细胞的大淋巴细胞。然而，据报道，包括乳腺癌在内的许多侵袭性癌症在肿瘤微环境中能够逃避NK细胞的有效杀伤。在本研究中，我们研究了姜黄素在人乳腺癌MDA-MB-231细胞与NK（NK-92）细胞共培养体系中的抗癌作用。我们发现姜黄素通过增加NK-92细胞表面CD16⁺和CD56群体的表达，对NK-92细胞具有免疫刺激作用。我们证实，在姜黄素存在的情况下，NK-92对MDA-MB-231的细胞毒性作用显著增强，这与NK-92细胞中Stat4和Stat5蛋白的激活高度相关。最后，姜黄素这种改善的抗癌作用与MDA-MB-231细胞中pErk和PI3K表达的降低相关。
