Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Curcumin inhibits viability and promotes apoptosis by modulating miR-17/caspase-9 pathway in colorectal cancer

Jun Tang^1,2 , Jingfang Yang³

¹Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou City, Guangdong 510632; ²Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities, Baise City, Guangxi 533000; ³Affiliated Hospital of Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities, Baise City, Guangxi 533000, China.

For correspondence:- Jun Tang Email: JunTangaxd@163.com Tel:+867762832895

Accepted: 23 November 2019 Published: 30 December 2019

Citation: Tang J, Yang J. Curcumin inhibits viability and promotes apoptosis by modulating miR-17/caspase-9 pathway in colorectal cancer. Trop J Pharm Res 2019; 18(12):2531-2538 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v18i12.10

© 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 investigate the mechanism of curcumin effect on colorectal cancer cells.

Methods: The miR-17-5p and caspase-9 were measured using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blotting in colorectal cancer tissues or cells with or without curcumin treatment. The binding sites between miR-17-5p and caspase-9 were predicted by TargetScan and verified by luciferase assay. The miR-17-5p mimics were transfected into colorectal cells to determine its effects. The overexpressing miR-17-5p mimics and a caspase-9 plasmid were co-transfected into colorectal cells to explore the underlying mechanism. In addition, an in vivo experiment was performed in a mouse model after injection of HCT116 cells to determine the role of curcumin.

Results: MiR-17-5p was upregulated in colorectal cancer tissues and cells. Curcumin treatment inhibits viability and induces apoptosis of colorectal cancer cells. MiR-17-5p inhibits viability and induces apoptosis of colorectal cancer cells by regulating the expression of caspase-9. Mechanism studies showed that curcumin induced colorectal cell apoptosis by regulation of caspase-9 expression via miR-17-5p. Finally, the animal results demonstrated the anti-tumor activity of curcumin in vivo.

Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that curcumin suppresses cell apoptosis and induce cell viability by regulating miR-17-5p and caspase-9 in colorectal cancer.

Keywords: Curcumin, Colorectal cancer cells, MiR-17, Caspase-9, Apoptosis