Curcumin exerts its antitumor activity through regulation of miR-7/Skp2/p21 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells

Abstract

Curcumin, a natural polyphenol compound, exhibits tumor suppressive activity in a wide spectrum of cancers, including nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells. However, the exact molecular mechanisms governing this tumor suppressive activity remain elusive. Multiple studies have revealed that miRNAs are critically involved in tumorigenesis, indicating that targeting miRNAs could be a therapeutic strategy for treating human cancer. In the current study, we set out to determine whether curcumin regulates miR-7 expression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells. We found that curcumin inhibited cell growth, induced apoptosis, retarded cell migration and invasion, and triggered cell cycle arrest in the human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines CNE1 and CNE2. Importantly, we observed that curcumin upregulated the expression of miR-7 and subsequently inhibited Skp2, a direct miR-7 target. Our results identified that upregulation of miR-7 by curcumin could benefit nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients.

Keywords:

• curcumin
• nasopharyngeal cancer
• miR-7
• Skp2
• proliferation

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 81572936) and a project funded by the priority academic program development of Jiangsu higher education institutions.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.