Curcumol: From Plant Roots to Cancer Roots

Overview

Journal Int J Biol Sci

Specialty Biology

Date 2019 Jul 31

PMID 31360103

Citations 36

Authors

Wei Wei

Azhar Rasul

Ayesha Sadiqa

Iqra Sarfraz

Ghulam Hussain

Bushra Nageen

Xintong Liu

Nobumoto Watanabe

Zeliha Selamoglu

Muhammad Ali

Xiaomeng Li

Jiang Li

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Natural products, an infinite treasure of bioactive scaffolds, have provided an excellent reservoir for the discovery of drugs since millennium. These naturally occurring, biologically active and therapeutically effective chemical entities have emerged as novel paradigm for the prevention of various diseases. This review aims to give an update on the sources as well as pharmacological profile of curcumol, a pharmacologically active sesquiterpenoid, which is an imperative bioactive constituent of several plants mainly from genus . Curcumol has potential to fight against cancer, oxidative stress, neurodegeneration, microbial infections, and inflammation. Curcumol has been documented as potent inducer of apoptosis in numerous cancer cells via targeting key signaling pathways as MAPK/ERK, PI3K/Akt and NF-κB which are generally deregulated in several cancers. The reported data reveals multitarget activity of curcumol in cancer treatment suggesting its importance as anticancer drug in future. It is speculated that curcumol may provide an excellent opportunity for the cure of cancer but further investigations on mechanism of its action and preclinical trials are still mandatory to further validate the potential of this natural cancer killer in anticancer therapies.

Citing Articles

Curcumol attenuates hyperproliferation and inflammatory response in a psoriatic HaCaT keratinocyte model by inhibiting the PI3K-Akt pathway and ameliorates skin lesions and inflammatory status in psoriasis-like mice.

Niu M, Li X, Li M, Chen F, Cao H, Liu Q Inflammopharmacology. 2025; .

PMID: 40063187 DOI: 10.1007/s10787-025-01708-y.

Curzerenone inactivates the nuclear factor-kappa B signaling to suppress malignancy and immune evasion in cervical cancer by targeting CSNK2B.

Sun Y, Wang M, Ling J, Wu Q, Han G, Zhou J Hum Cell. 2024; 38(1):35.

PMID: 39718697 DOI: 10.1007/s13577-024-01164-w.

Curcumol Enhances the Sensitivity of Gastric Cancer to Cisplatin Resistance by Inducing Ferroptosis Through the P62/KEAP1/NRF2 Pathway.

Feng T, Zhou Y, Mao X, Rui X, Cai L Integr Cancer Ther. 2024; 23:15347354241294043.

PMID: 39511708 PMC: 11544674. DOI: 10.1177/15347354241294043.

Therapeutic Potential of Natural Resources Against Endometriosis: Current Advances and Future Perspectives.

Gu X, Zhou H, Miao M, Hu D, Wang X, Zhou J Drug Des Devel Ther. 2024; 18:3667-3696.

PMID: 39188919 PMC: 11345706. DOI: 10.2147/DDDT.S464910.

Role of Curcuma longae Rhizoma in medical applications: research challenges and opportunities.

Zhang P, Liu H, Yu Y, Peng S, Zhu S Front Pharmacol. 2024; 15:1430284.

PMID: 39170702 PMC: 11336575. DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1430284.

References

Rasul A, Yu B, Khan M, Zhang K, Iqbal F, Ma T . Magnolol, a natural compound, induces apoptosis of SGC-7901 human gastric adenocarcinoma cells via the mitochondrial and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways. Int J Oncol. 2011; 40(4):1153-61. PMC: 3584565. DOI: 10.3892/ijo.2011.1277. View

Shi H, Tan B, Ji G, Lu L, Cao A, Shi S . Zedoary oil (Ezhu You) inhibits proliferation of AGS cells. Chin Med. 2013; 8:13. PMC: 3710279. DOI: 10.1186/1749-8546-8-13. View

Gach K, Dlugosz A, Janecka A . The role of oxidative stress in anticancer activity of sesquiterpene lactones. Naunyn Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol. 2015; 388(5):477-86. DOI: 10.1007/s00210-015-1096-3. View

Zhang W, Wang Z, Chen T . Curcumol induces apoptosis via caspases-independent mitochondrial pathway in human lung adenocarcinoma ASTC-a-1 cells. Med Oncol. 2010; 28(1):307-14. DOI: 10.1007/s12032-010-9431-5. View

Chadwick M, Trewin H, Gawthrop F, Wagstaff C . Sesquiterpenoids lactones: benefits to plants and people. Int J Mol Sci. 2013; 14(6):12780-805. PMC: 3709812. DOI: 10.3390/ijms140612780. View

Wang J, Li X, Bai Z, Chi B, Wei Y, Chen X . Curcumol induces cell cycle arrest in colon cancer cells via reactive oxygen species and Akt/ GSK3β/cyclin D1 pathway. J Ethnopharmacol. 2017; 210:1-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.jep.2017.06.037. View

Nagle A, Hur W, Gray N . Antimitotic agents of natural origin. Curr Drug Targets. 2006; 7(3):305-26. DOI: 10.2174/138945006776054933. View

Zhang J, Guan J, Yang F, Liu H, Cheng X, Li S . Qualitative and quantitative analysis of four species of Curcuma rhizomes using twice development thin layer chromatography. J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2008; 48(3):1024-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpba.2008.07.006. View

Cragg G, Newman D . Natural products: a continuing source of novel drug leads. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2013; 1830(6):3670-95. PMC: 3672862. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbagen.2013.02.008. View

10.

Ashkenazi A . Targeting the extrinsic apoptotic pathway in cancer: lessons learned and future directions. J Clin Invest. 2015; 125(2):487-9. PMC: 4319431. DOI: 10.1172/JCI80420. View

11.

Santarpia L, Lippman S, El-Naggar A . Targeting the MAPK-RAS-RAF signaling pathway in cancer therapy. Expert Opin Ther Targets. 2012; 16(1):103-19. PMC: 3457779. DOI: 10.1517/14728222.2011.645805. View

12.

DallAcqua S . Natural products as antimitotic agents. Curr Top Med Chem. 2014; 14(20):2272-85. DOI: 10.2174/1568026614666141130095311. View

13.

Ning L, Ma H, Jiang Z, Chen L, Li L, Chen Q . Curcumol Suppresses Breast Cancer Cell Metastasis by Inhibiting MMP-9 Via JNK1/2 and Akt-Dependent NF-κB Signaling Pathways. Integr Cancer Ther. 2016; 15(2):216-25. PMC: 5736062. DOI: 10.1177/1534735416642865. View

14.

Pant B . Application of plant cell and tissue culture for the production of phytochemicals in medicinal plants. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2014; 808:25-39. DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-1774-9_3. View

15.

Grant S, Roberts J . The use of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors alone or in combination with established cytotoxic drugs in cancer chemotherapy. Drug Resist Updat. 2003; 6(1):15-26. DOI: 10.1016/s1368-7646(02)00141-3. View

16.

Denev P, Kratchanova M, ciz M, Lojek A, Vasicek O, Blazheva D . Antioxidant, antimicrobial and neutrophil-modulating activities of herb extracts. Acta Biochim Pol. 2014; 61(2):359-67. View

17.

Tang Q, Guo J, Wang Q, Lin H, Yang Z, Peng T . Curcumol induces apoptosis in SPC-A-1 human lung adenocarcinoma cells and displays anti-neoplastic effects in tumor bearing mice. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2015; 16(6):2307-12. DOI: 10.7314/apjcp.2015.16.6.2307. View

18.

Peng Z, Zhou W, Zhang C, Liu H, Zhang Y . Curcumol Controls Choriocarcinoma Stem-Like Cells Self-Renewal via Repression of DNA Methyltransferase (DNMT)- and Histone Deacetylase (HDAC)-Mediated Epigenetic Regulation. Med Sci Monit. 2018; 24:461-472. PMC: 5791388. DOI: 10.12659/msm.908430. View

19.

Hussain G, Zhang L, Rasul A, Anwar H, Sohail M, Razzaq A . Role of Plant-Derived Flavonoids and Their Mechanism in Attenuation of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases: An Update of Recent Data. Molecules. 2018; 23(4). PMC: 6017497. DOI: 10.3390/molecules23040814. View

20.

Yu C, Sun X, Niu Y . An investigation of the developmental neurotoxic potential of curcumol in PC12 cells. Toxicol Mech Methods. 2016; 26(9):635-643. DOI: 10.1080/15376516.2016.1207735. View