Curcumin (Synonyms: Indian Saffron, Turmeric yellow)

Cell experiment:

T47D breast cancer cell line is grown in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10% FBS, 2 mg/mL sodium bicarbonate, 0.05 mg/mL penicillin G, 0.08 mg/mL streptomycin. Culture is maintained on plastic flask and incubated at 37°C in 5% CO2. After growing sufficient amount of cells, cytotoxic effect of silibinin and curcumin is studied by 24, 48 and 72 h MTT assays in which 1000 cell/well are cultivated in a 96 well plate. After 24 h incubation in 37°C with humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO2, the cells are treated with serial concentrations of curcumin (5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100 µM), silibinin (20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 180, 200 µM), and curcumin-silibinin mixture (each of them 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100 µM) for 24, 48 and 72 h in the quadruplicate manner, in addition to cells with 200 μL culture medium containing 10% DMSO for control. After incubation, the medium of all wells of the plate are exchanged with fresh medium and the cells are leaved for 24 h in incubator. Then, medium of all wells are removed carefully and 50 μL of 2 mg/mL MTT dissolved in PBS is added to each wells and the plate is covered with aluminum foil and incubated for 4.5 h again. After removing content of the wells, 200 μL pure DMSO is added to the wells. Then, 25 μL Sorensen’s glycine buffer is added and immediately absorbance of each wells is read in 570 nm using EL×800 Microplate Absorbance Reader with reference wavelength of 630 nm.

Animal experiment:

Curcumin (10 mg/kg), freshly suspended in saline, is administrated by oral gavage once a day for 3 weeks. Forty rats are randomLy assigned to 4 groups (n=10/each group): group I receives saline and serves as control, group II receives curcumin, group III is exposed to CMS andreceive saline and group IV are subjected to CMS andreceive curcumin.

References:

[1]. Gao S, et al. Curcumin attenuates arsenic-induced hepatic injuries and oxidative stress in experimental mice through activation of Nrf2 pathway, promotion of arsenic methylation and urinary excretion. Food Chem Toxicol. 2013 Jul 18. pii: S0278-6915(13)004
[2]. Nasiri M, et al. Curcumin and Silibinin Inhibit Telomerase Expression in T47D Human Breast Cancer Cells. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2013;14(6):3449-53.
[3]. Cao A, et all. Curcumin induces apoptosis in human gastric carcinoma AGS cells and colon carcinoma HT-29 cells through mitochondrial dysfunction and endoplasmic reticulum stress. Apoptosis. 2013 Jul 24. [Epub ahead of print]
[4]. Jiang H, et al. Antidepressant-like effects of curcumin in chronic mild stress of rats: Involvement of its anti-inflammatory action. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2013 Jul 20. pii: S0278-5846(13)00150-4.
[5]. Guo H, et al. Curcumin induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of prostate cancer cells by regulating the expression of IkappaBalpha, c-Jun and androgen receptor. Pharmazie. 2013 Jun;68(6):431-4.
[6]. Zhu X, et al. Curcumin alleviates neuropathic pain by inhibiting p300/CBP histone acetyltransferase activity-regulated expression of BDNF and cox-2 in a rat model. PLoS One. 2014 Mar 6;9(3):e91303.