Abstract
It has been well known that curcumin is a powerful inhibitor of proliferation of several tumor cells. However, the molecular basis of the anti-proliferative effect of curcumin has not been investigated in detail. In this paper, we present evidence to show that curcumin inhibited proliferation of a variety of B lymphoma cells. At low concentrations curcumin inhibited the proliferation of BKS-2, an immature B cell lymphoma, more effectively than that of normal B lymphocytes and caused the apoptosis of BKS-2 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Furthermore, curcumin downregulated the expression of survival genes egr-1, c-myc, and bcl-X(L) as well as the tumor suppressor gene p53 in B cells. In addition, NF-κB binding activity was also downregulated almost completely by curcumin. Stimulation with CpG oligonucleotides or anti-CD40 overcame growth inhibition induced by low concentrations of curcumin. Our results suggest that curcumin caused the growth arrest and apoptosis of BKS-2 immature B cell lymphoma by downregulation of growth and survival promoting genes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 152-161 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Clinical Immunology |
| Volume | 93 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 1999 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Our thanks to Dr. Ralph Chelvarajan for a careful review of the manuscript and help with the Excel program to plot the data. This work was supported in part by NIH Grants AI21490 and AG05731 to SB.
Funding
Our thanks to Dr. Ralph Chelvarajan for a careful review of the manuscript and help with the Excel program to plot the data. This work was supported in part by NIH Grants AI21490 and AG05731 to SB.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | AG05731 |
| National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | R01AI021490 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Immunology and Allergy
- Immunology