Investigating The Therapeutic Effects Of Curcumin, An Extract Of The Turmeric Plant, On Cancer Cell Lines

Researchers at Tarbiat Modares University have produced a pharmaceutical compound that is capable of identifying and eliminating cancer cells. This compound, which is prepared from turmeric extract, inhibits the proliferation of cancer cells. One of the herbal compounds extracted from the root of turmeric is curcumin, and in traditional medicine, this herbal extract is used to treat a wide range of respiratory, inflammatory and wound diseases. The anticancer role of this compound has also been proven in modern medicine. However, since curcumin has low tissue distribution and absorption and is rapidly metabolized in the liver and intestinal wall, this problem must be overcome in order to use it in the pharmaceutical and medical industries. In the recent project, a new generation of polymer nanocarriers called dendrosomes has been used to increase the aqueous solubility of this extract. In this drug combination, curcumin is highly loaded (about ۸۷%) into these polymer nanocarriers and forms a spherical structure with a size of ۱۴۰ nm. The physical and chemical stability of this drug combination is high. This compound has been successfully used in vitro to treat a type of aggressive tumor of the central nervous system, called glioblastoma. After treating cancer cells with this drug, key genes for proliferation and growth of these cells are significantly reduced and directed towards the programmed cell death pathway. Also, the lethal effect of nanocurcumin on adult stem cells derived from bone marrow and normal skin fibroblast cells is observed at a higher concentration than the effective concentration on cancer cells. In other words, at concentrations that are lethal to cancer cells, the lethal effect on normal cells is not observed. This shows that curcumin has a preferential tendency to enter cancer cells. The size range of the nanocarrier used in this study is ۱۵ to ۱۰۰ nm. Physical and chemical stability, non-toxicity and biodegradability are the main characteristics of these nanocarriers. According to the results, the nanocarriers used do not have any toxic effect on cells. In other words, all the death induced in cells is caused by curcumin and the dendrosome only causes the bioavailability and transport of this substance to the cells

کلیدواژه ها:

Turmeric extract ، therapeutic effects ، cancer cells