Curcumin reduces the expression of malignancy-associated Bcl-2 in breast cancer cells. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Curcumin reduces the expression of Bcl-2 by upregulating miR-15a and miR-16 in MCF-7 cells.
Med Oncol. 2010 Dec;27(4):1114-8. Epub 2009 Nov 12. PMID: 19908170
Department of Nephrology, Tangdu Hospital, and Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China.
The medicinal properties of curcumin are well documented in Indian and Chinese systems of medicine, which refer to its wide use in the treatment of some diseases. It has shown to have anti-carcinogenic properties and is known to prevent tumor development in some cancers. In our study, we confirmed that the expression of miR-15a and miR-16 was upregulated and that of Bcl-2 was downregulated in curcumin-treated MCF-7 cells. Silencing miR-15a and miR-16 by specific inhibitors restored the expression of Bcl-2. Thus, we concluded that curcumin can reduce the expression of Bcl-2 by upregulating the expression of miR-15a and miR-16 in MCF-7 cells.