Visible light is a better co-inducer of apoptosis for curcumin-treated human melanoma cells than UVA

  • Curcumin attracts worldwide scientific interest due to its anti-proliferative and apoptosis inducing effects on different tumor cells at concentrations ranging from 10 to 150 µM (3.7–55 µg/ml). Unfortunately, because of a low oral bioavailability, only low and pharmacologically ineffective serum levels are achievable. In this study, an alternative treatment concept consisting of low concentration curcumin (0.2–5 µg/ml) and irradiation with UVA or visible light (VL) has been tested. The experimental results show clearly that this treatment decreases the proliferation and the viability of human melanoma cells while the cell membrane integrity remains intact. We identified the onset of apoptosis characterized by typical markers such as active caspases 8, 9 and 3 as well as DNA fragmentation accompanied by the loss of cell adhesion. The mitochondrial apoptosis signaling pathway is predominant due to an early activation of caspase-9. The present data indicate a higher efficacy of a combination of curcumin and VL than curcumin and UVA. Reduced effects as a result of light absorption by heavily pigmented skin are unlikely if VL is used. These results indicate that a combination of curcumin and light irradiation may be a useful additional therapy in the treatment of malignant disease.

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Metadaten
Author:Stephan Buss, Jadranka Dobra, Kerstin Goerg, Stephanie Hoffmann, Stefan KippenbergerORCiDGND, Roland KaufmannGND, Matthias HofmannGND, August BerndORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-323628
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0079748
ISSN:1932-6203
Parent Title (English):PLoS One
Publisher:PLoS
Place of publication:Lawrence, Kan.
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2013/11/08
Date of first Publication:2013/11/08
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2013/11/18
Volume:8
Issue:(11):e79748
Page Number:8
Note:
Copyright: © 2013 Buss et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
HeBIS-PPN:363169334
Institutes:Medizin / Medizin
Dewey Decimal Classification:6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 3.0