Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Curcumin inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition in colorectal cancer cells by regulating miR-206/SNAI2 pathway

Pan Zhao¹, Chunjie Zhang² , Dafei Xie², Maowei Pei²

¹Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hangzhou First People's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou City 310006; ²Department of General Surgery, Zhejiang Hospital, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province 310000, China.

For correspondence:- Chunjie Zhang Email: ChunjieZhang46@163.com Tel:+8657187377421

Accepted: 24 June 2019 Published: 28 July 2019

Citation: Zhao P, Zhang C, Xie D, Pei M. Curcumin inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition in colorectal cancer cells by regulating miR-206/SNAI2 pathway. Trop J Pharm Res 2019; 18(7):1405-1412 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v18i7.6

© 2019 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To examine the effects of curcumin on epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) via regulation of miR-206 and SNAI2 in colorectal cancer (CRC) cells. Relationship between SNAI2 and miR-206 and the effects of curcumin on related mechanisms were also identified.

Methods: Transwell assays were used to analyze cellular migration and invasion. Genes associated with changes in protein and mRNA expression were evaluated by western blotting and quantitative reverse transcription PCR analyses, respectively. The relationship between SNAI2 and miR-206 was determined using a dual luciferase assay.

Results: Curcumin inhibited cell metastasis, upregulated miR-206 expression, and decreased SNAI2 levels. Furthermore, miR-206 directly targeted SNAI2 and inhibited EMT via downregulation of SNAI2 expression. Curcumin inhibited EMT in CRC cells by upregulating miR-206.

Conclusion: This study, for the first time, discovered the role of curcumin on epithelial-mesenchymal transition process in colorectal cancer cells by modulating miR-206/SNAI2 axis. These findings suggest that curcumin may be useful as a novel therapeutic agent to inhibit the metastasis of CRC.

Keywords: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition, Colorectal cancer, MiR-206, SNAI2, Cell migration, Curcumin