Modulating NF-κB Activity as a Therapeutic Strategy against Lymphoma with Analogs of Curcumin

Submitter and Co-author information

Melissa Cowell, University of WindsorFollow

Type of Proposal

Oral presentation

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Faculty Sponsor

Siyaram Pandey

Proposal

It is estimated that 2 in 5 Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetimes and 1 in 4 will die of this disease. Lymphoma is the fifth most common cancer in Canada and it has the fastest raising incident rate in young adults. Current cancer treatment includes chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. The majority of chemotherapeutics target DNA or tubulin, which is not selective against cancer cells. One possible target for lymphoma is the increased expression and activation of the nuclear transcription factor NF-κB. This protein causes the expression of cell cycle and cell survival genes. Curcumin is isolated from Tumeric root, which has already shown to target NF-κB and selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cells. Curcumin has a low bioavailability but this problem can be solved with a synthetic analog. Our objective is to determine if any of our ten Curcumin analogs have the anti-cancer activity. Two of these analogs that have shown anti-cancer activity and have been evaluated with the WST-1 metabolic assay and the Annexin V binding assay for apoptosis. Further illustration of the mechanism is needed. These compounds seem to target non-genomic metabolic targets and have a potential for non-toxic cancer treatment.

Start Date

29-3-2016 4:00 PM

End Date

29-3-2016 5:00 PM

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Mar 29th, 4:00 PM Mar 29th, 5:00 PM

Modulating NF-κB Activity as a Therapeutic Strategy against Lymphoma with Analogs of Curcumin

It is estimated that 2 in 5 Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetimes and 1 in 4 will die of this disease. Lymphoma is the fifth most common cancer in Canada and it has the fastest raising incident rate in young adults. Current cancer treatment includes chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. The majority of chemotherapeutics target DNA or tubulin, which is not selective against cancer cells. One possible target for lymphoma is the increased expression and activation of the nuclear transcription factor NF-κB. This protein causes the expression of cell cycle and cell survival genes. Curcumin is isolated from Tumeric root, which has already shown to target NF-κB and selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cells. Curcumin has a low bioavailability but this problem can be solved with a synthetic analog. Our objective is to determine if any of our ten Curcumin analogs have the anti-cancer activity. Two of these analogs that have shown anti-cancer activity and have been evaluated with the WST-1 metabolic assay and the Annexin V binding assay for apoptosis. Further illustration of the mechanism is needed. These compounds seem to target non-genomic metabolic targets and have a potential for non-toxic cancer treatment.