Curcumin and its derivatives in cancer therapy: Potentiating antitumor activity of cisplatin and reducing side effects.

Curcumin is a phytochemical isolated from Curcuma longa with potent tumor-suppressor activity, which has shown significant efficacy in pre-clinical and clinical studies. Curcumin stimulates cell death, triggers cycle arrest, and suppresses oncogenic pathways, thereby suppressing cancer progression. Cisplatin (CP) stimulates DNA damage and apoptosis in cancer chemotherapy. However, CP has adverse effects on several organs of the body, and drug resistance is frequently observed. The purpose of the present review is to show the function of curcumin in decreasing CP's adverse impacts and improving its antitumor activity. Curcumin administration reduces ROS levels to prevent apoptosis in normal cells. Furthermore, curcumin can inhibit inflammation via down-regulation of NF-κB to maintain the normal function of organs. Curcumin and its nanoformulations can reduce the hepatoxicity, neurotoxicity, renal toxicity, ototoxicity, and cardiotoxicity caused by CP. Notably, curcumin potentiates CP cytotoxicity via mediating cell death and cycle arrest. Besides, curcumin suppresses the STAT3 and NF-ĸB as tumor-promoting pathways, to enhance CP sensitivity and prevent drug resistance. The targeted delivery of curcumin and CP to tumor cells can be mediated nanostructures. In addition, curcumin derivatives are also able to reduce CP-mediated side effects, and increase CP cytotoxicity against various cancer types.

Curcumin in cancer therapy: A novel adjunct for combination chemotherapy with paclitaxel and alleviation of its adverse effects.

Dealing with cancer is of importance due to enhanced incidence rate of this life-threatening disorder. Chemotherapy is an ideal candidate in overcoming and eradication of cancer. To date, various chemotherapeutic agents have been applied in cancer therapy and paclitaxel (PTX) is one of them. PTX is a key member of taxane family with potential anti-tumor activity against different cancers. Notably, PTX has demonstrated excellent proficiency in elimination of cancer in clinical trials. This chemotherapeutic agent is isolated from Taxus brevifolia, and is a tricyclic diterpenoid. However, resistance of cancer cells into PTX chemotherapy has endangered its efficacy. Besides, administration of PTX is associated with a number of side effects such as neurotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, cardiotoxicity and so on, demanding novel strategies in obviating PTX issues. Curcumin is a pharmacological compound with diverse therapeutic effects including anti-tumor, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic and so on. In the current review, we demonstrate that curcumin, a naturally occurring nutraceutical compound is able to enhance anti-tumor activity of PTX against different cancers. Besides, curcumin administration reduces adverse effects of PTX due to its excellent pharmacological activities. These topics are discussed with an emphasis on molecular pathways to provide direction for further studies in revealing other signaling networks.

Nobiletin in Cancer Therapy: How This Plant Derived-Natural Compound Targets Various Oncogene and Onco-Suppressor Pathways.

Cancer therapy is a growing field, and annually, a high number of research is performed to develop novel antitumor drugs. Attempts to find new antitumor drugs continue, since cancer cells are able to acquire resistance to conventional drugs. Natural chemicals can be considered as promising candidates in the field of cancer therapy due to their multiple-targeting capability. The nobiletin (NOB) is a ubiquitous flavone isolated from Citrus fruits. The NOB has a variety of pharmacological activities, such as antidiabetes, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and neuroprotective. Among them, the antitumor activity of NOB has been under attention over recent years. In this review, we comprehensively describe the efficacy of NOB in cancer therapy. NOB induces apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in cancer cells. It can suppress migration and invasion of cancer cells via the inhibition of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and EMT-related factors such as TGF-ß, ZEB, Slug, and Snail. Besides, NOB inhibits oncogene factors such as STAT3, NF-κB, Akt, PI3K, Wnt, and so on. Noteworthy, onco-suppressor factors such as microRNA-7 and -200b undergo upregulation by NOB in cancer therapy. These onco-suppressor and oncogene pathways and mechanisms are discussed in this review.