Curcumin modulates cellular AP-1, NF-kB, and HPV16 E6 proteins in oral cancer

Alok Mishra; Rakesh Kumar; Abhishek Tyagi; Indu Kohaar; Suresh Hedau; Alok C Bharti; Subhodeep Sarker; Dipankar Dey; Daman Saluja; Bhudev Das

doi:10.3332/ecancer.2015.525

Curcumin modulates cellular AP-1, NF-kB, and HPV16 E6 proteins in oral cancer

Ecancermedicalscience. 2015 Apr 23:9:525. doi: 10.3332/ecancer.2015.525. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Alok Mishra¹, Rakesh Kumar², Abhishek Tyagi³, Indu Kohaar⁴, Suresh Hedau⁵, Alok C Bharti⁵, Subhodeep Sarker⁵, Dipankar Dey⁵, Daman Saluja⁶, Bhudev Das⁷

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology (ICMR), I-7, Sector-39, Noida 201301, India ; Ambedkar Centre for Biomedical Research (ACBR), University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India ; National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA 20892.
² Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology (ICMR), I-7, Sector-39, Noida 201301, India ; Ambedkar Centre for Biomedical Research (ACBR), University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India ; Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA 55905 ; Rakesh Kumar deceased.
³ Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology (ICMR), I-7, Sector-39, Noida 201301, India ; Ambedkar Centre for Biomedical Research (ACBR), University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India.
⁴ Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology (ICMR), I-7, Sector-39, Noida 201301, India ; National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA 20892.
⁵ Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology (ICMR), I-7, Sector-39, Noida 201301, India.
⁶ Ambedkar Centre for Biomedical Research (ACBR), University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India.
⁷ Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology (ICMR), I-7, Sector-39, Noida 201301, India ; Ambedkar Centre for Biomedical Research (ACBR), University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India ; Amity University, Noida 201303, India.

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the effects of the natural antioxidant curcumin on the HPV16-positive oral carcinoma cell line 93VU147T and demonstrated that curcumin is not only a potent inhibitor for the activity of host nuclear transcription factors AP-1 and NF-kB but it also selectively suppresses transcription of the HPV16/E6 oncogene during the carcinogenic process in oral cancer cells. This study suggests a therapeutic potential of curcumin for high-risk human papilloma virus (HPV)-infected oral cancers.

Keywords: activator protein-1 (AP-1); curcumin; human papilloma virus (HPA); nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kB); transcription.