Growth and proliferation of renal cell carcinoma cells is blocked by low curcumin concentrations combined with visible light irradiation

  • The anti-cancer properties of curcumin in vitro have been documented. However, its clinical use is limited due to rapid metabolization. Since irradiation of curcumin has been found to increase its anti-cancer effect on several tumor types, this investigation was designed to determine whether irradiation with visible light may enhance the anti-tumor effects of low-dosed curcumin on renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cell growth and proliferation. A498, Caki1, and KTCTL-26 cells were incubated with curcumin (0.1–0.4 µg/mL) and irradiated with 1.65 J/cm2 visible light for 5 min. Controls were exposed to curcumin or light alone or remained untreated. Curcumin plus light, but not curcumin or light exposure alone altered growth, proliferation, and apoptosis of all three RCC tumor cell lines. Cells were arrested in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle. Phosphorylated (p) CDK1 and pCDK2, along with their counter-receptors Cyclin B and A decreased, whereas p27 increased. Akt-mTOR-signaling was suppressed, the pro-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 became elevated, and the anti-apoptotic protein Bax diminished. H3 acetylation was elevated when cells were treated with curcumin plus light, pointing to an epigenetic mechanism. The present findings substantiate the potential of combining low curcumin concentrations and light as a new therapeutic concept to increase the efficacy of curcumin in RCC.

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Author:Jochen RutzGND, Sebastian MaxeinerGND, Eva JüngelORCiDGND, August BerndORCiDGND, Stefan KippenbergerORCiDGND, Nadja Nicole ZöllerORCiDGND, Felix ChunORCiDGND, Roman A. BlahetaORCiD
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-499432
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20061464
ISSN:1422-0067
ISSN:1661-6596
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30909499
Parent Title (English):International journal of molecular sciences
Publisher:Molecular Diversity Preservation International
Place of publication:Basel
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2019
Date of first Publication:2019/03/22
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2019/04/11
Tag:cell cycling; curcumin; renal cell cancer; tumor growth; tumor proliferation
Volume:20
Issue:6, Art. 1464
Page Number:17
First Page:1
Last Page:17
Note:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
HeBIS-PPN:450779513
Institutes:Medizin / Medizin
Dewey Decimal Classification:6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Open-Access-Publikationsfonds:Medizin
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0