Recent Advances in Curcumin-Based Combination Nanomedicines for Cancer Therapy

Overview

Journal J Funct Biomater

Specialty Biomedical Engineering

Date 2023 Aug 25

PMID 37623653

Authors

Amir R Afshari

Mehdi Sanati

Prashant Kesharwani

Amirhossein Sahebkar

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Standard cancer chemotherapeutics often produce significant adverse effects and eventually lose their effectiveness due to the emergence of resistance mechanisms. As a result, patients with malignant tumors experience a poor quality of life and a short lifespan. Thus, combination medication regimens provide various advantages, including increased success rate, fewer side effects, and fewer occurrences of resistance. Curcumin (Cur), a potential phytochemical from turmeric, when coupled with traditional chemotherapeutics, has been established to improve the effectiveness of cancer treatment in clinical and preclinical investigations. Cur not only exerts multiple mechanisms resulting in apoptotic cancer cell death but also reduces the resistance to standard chemotherapy drugs, mainly through downregulating the multi-drug resistance (MDR) cargoes. Recent reports showed the beneficial outcomes of Cur combination with many chemotherapeutics in various malignancies. Nevertheless, owing to the limited bioavailability, devising co-delivery strategies for Cur and conventional pharmaceuticals appears to be required for clinical settings. This review summarized various Cur combinations with standard treatments as cancer therapeutics.

Citing Articles

Emerging Role of Hypoxia-Inducible Factors (HIFs) in Modulating Autophagy: Perspectives on Cancer Therapy.

Jalouli M Int J Mol Sci. 2025; 26(4).

PMID: 40004215 PMC: 11855875. DOI: 10.3390/ijms26041752.

A novel approach to glioblastoma multiforme treatment using modulation of key pathways by naturally occurring small molecules.

Afshari A, Sanati M, Aminyavari S, Keshavarzi Z, Ahmadi S, Oroojalian F Inflammopharmacology. 2025; .

PMID: 39955698 DOI: 10.1007/s10787-025-01666-5.

6-Gingerol Induced Apoptosis and Cell Cycle Arrest in Glioma Cells via MnSOD and ERK Phosphorylation Modulation.

Lim S, Chen W, Ko H, Su Y, Wu C, Huang F Biomol Ther (Seoul). 2024; 33(1):129-142.

PMID: 39632791 PMC: 11704400. DOI: 10.4062/biomolther.2024.084.

Harnessing curcumin and nanotechnology for enhanced treatment of breast cancer bone metastasis.

Shakori Poshteh S, Alipour S, Varamini P Discov Nano. 2024; 19(1):177.

PMID: 39527354 PMC: 11554965. DOI: 10.1186/s11671-024-04126-1.

References

Muhanmode Y, Wen M, Maitinuri A, Shen G . Curcumin and resveratrol inhibit chemoresistance in cisplatin-resistant epithelial ovarian cancer cells via targeting P13K pathway. Hum Exp Toxicol. 2022; 41:9603271221095929. DOI: 10.1177/09603271221095929. View

Biller L, Schrag D . Diagnosis and Treatment of Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: A Review. JAMA. 2021; 325(7):669-685. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2021.0106. View

Liu Z, Zhu Y, Li Z, Ning S . Evaluation of the efficacy of paclitaxel with curcumin combination in ovarian cancer cells. Oncol Lett. 2016; 12(5):3944-3948. PMC: 5104213. DOI: 10.3892/ol.2016.5192. View

Kundur S, Prayag A, Selvakumar P, Nguyen H, McKee L, Cruz C . Synergistic anticancer action of quercetin and curcumin against triple-negative breast cancer cell lines. J Cell Physiol. 2018; 234(7):11103-11118. DOI: 10.1002/jcp.27761. View

Banerjee S, Singh S, Chowdhury I, Lillard Jr J, Singh R . Combinatorial effect of curcumin with docetaxel modulates apoptotic and cell survival molecules in prostate cancer. Front Biosci (Elite Ed). 2017; 9(2):235-245. PMC: 5545125. DOI: 10.2741/e798. View

Seo S, Woo S, Lee H, Kim S, Min K, Kwon T . mTORC1/2 inhibitor and curcumin induce apoptosis through lysosomal membrane permeabilization-mediated autophagy. Oncogene. 2018; 37(38):5205-5220. PMC: 6147804. DOI: 10.1038/s41388-018-0345-6. View

Mahammedi H, Planchat E, Pouget M, Durando X, Cure H, Guy L . The New Combination Docetaxel, Prednisone and Curcumin in Patients with Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: A Pilot Phase II Study. Oncology. 2016; 90(2):69-78. DOI: 10.1159/000441148. View

Altundag E, Mine Yilmaz A, Kocturk S, Taga Y, Yalcin A . Synergistic Induction of Apoptosis by Quercetin and Curcumin in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (K562) Cells. Nutr Cancer. 2017; 70(1):97-108. DOI: 10.1080/01635581.2018.1380208. View

Namkaew J, Jaroonwitchawan T, Rujanapun N, Saelee J, Noisa P . Combined effects of curcumin and doxorubicin on cell death and cell migration of SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Anim. 2018; 54(9):629-639. DOI: 10.1007/s11626-018-0288-9. View

10.

Zhang P, Lai Z, Chen H, Zhang M, Wang A, Jia T . Curcumin synergizes with 5-fluorouracil by impairing AMPK/ULK1-dependent autophagy, AKT activity and enhancing apoptosis in colon cancer cells with tumor growth inhibition in xenograft mice. J Exp Clin Cancer Res. 2017; 36(1):190. PMC: 5741949. DOI: 10.1186/s13046-017-0661-7. View

11.

Karaboga Arslan A, Uzunhisarcikli E, Yerer M, Bishayee A . The golden spice curcumin in cancer: A perspective on finalized clinical trials during the last 10 years. J Cancer Res Ther. 2022; 18(1):19-26. DOI: 10.4103/jcrt.JCRT_1017_20. View

12.

Kuang G, Zhang Q, He S, Liu Y . Curcumin-loaded PEGylated mesoporous silica nanoparticles for effective photodynamic therapy. RSC Adv. 2022; 10(41):24624-24630. PMC: 9055143. DOI: 10.1039/d0ra04778c. View

13.

Caswell-Jin J, Plevritis S, Tian L, Cadham C, Xu C, Stout N . Change in Survival in Metastatic Breast Cancer with Treatment Advances: Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review. JNCI Cancer Spectr. 2019; 2(4):pky062. PMC: 6305243. DOI: 10.1093/jncics/pky062. View

14.

Vatankhah M, Panahizadeh R, Nejati-Koshki K, Arabzadeh M, Arabzadeh A, Najafzadeh N . Curcumin Upregulates miR-148a to Increase the Chemosensitivity of CD44-Positive Prostate Cancer Stem Cells to Paclitaxel Through Targeting the MSK1/IRS1 axis. Drug Res (Stuttg). 2022; 72(8):457-465. DOI: 10.1055/a-1867-4805. View

15.

Cheng Y, Zhao P, Wu S, Yang T, Chen Y, Zhang X . Cisplatin and curcumin co-loaded nano-liposomes for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. Int J Pharm. 2018; 545(1-2):261-273. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2018.05.007. View

16.

Zhou X, Wang W, Li P, Zheng Z, Tu Y, Zhang Y . Curcumin Enhances the Effects of 5-Fluorouracil and Oxaliplatin in Inducing Gastric Cancer Cell Apoptosis Both In Vitro and In Vivo. Oncol Res. 2016; 23(1-2):29-34. PMC: 7842506. DOI: 10.3727/096504015X14452563486011. View

17.

Alsadat Vakilinezhad M, Amini A, Dara T, Alipour S . Methotrexate and Curcumin co-encapsulated PLGA nanoparticles as a potential breast cancer therapeutic system: In vitro and in vivo evaluation. Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces. 2019; 184:110515. DOI: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2019.110515. View

18.

Mansourizadeh F, Alberti D, Bitonto V, Tripepi M, Sepehri H, Khoee S . Efficient synergistic combination effect of Quercetin with Curcumin on breast cancer cell apoptosis through their loading into Apo ferritin cavity. Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces. 2020; 191:110982. DOI: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2020.110982. View

19.

Patel B, Gupta D, Elliott A, Sengupta V, Yu Y, Majumdar A . Curcumin targets FOLFOX-surviving colon cancer cells via inhibition of EGFRs and IGF-1R. Anticancer Res. 2010; 30(2):319-25. PMC: 3836443. View

20.

Shakibaei M, Mobasheri A, Lueders C, Busch F, Shayan P, Goel A . Curcumin enhances the effect of chemotherapy against colorectal cancer cells by inhibition of NF-κB and Src protein kinase signaling pathways. PLoS One. 2013; 8(2):e57218. PMC: 3579779. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0057218. View