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Cellular Oncology
Published in: Cellular Oncology 6/2014

01-12-2014 | Original Paper

Apoptosis induction by an analog of curcumin (BDMC-A) in human laryngeal carcinoma cells through intrinsic and extrinsic pathways

Authors: Kumaravel Mohankumar, Sankar Pajaniradje, Subhashree Sridharan, Vivek Kumar Singh, Larance Ronsard, Akhil C. Banerjea, Benson Chellakkan Selvanesan, Mohane Selvaraj Coumar, Latha Periyasamy, Rukkumani Rajagopalan

Published in: Cellular Oncology | Issue 6/2014

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Abstract

Background

Head and neck cancer is the sixth most frequently occurring cancer worldwide and accounts for about 2 % of all cancer-related deaths annually. Curcumin is a well-known chemopreventive agent, and apoptosis induction by curcumin has been reported in many cancer cell types. We synthesized an ortho-hydroxy substituted analog of curcumin, bisdemethoxycurcumin analog (BDMC-A), and aimed to demarcate the apoptotic effects induced by BDMC-A on human laryngeal cancer Hep-2 cells and to compare these effects with those induced by curcumin.

Methods

We evaluated the apoptotic effects of BDMC-A in comparison to those of curcumin on Hep-2 cells by performing Western blotting, RT-PCR, fluorescent staining and DNA fragmentation assays. In addition, we carried out an in silico molecular docking study on the EGFR kinase domain.

Results

We found that BDMC-A can induce apoptosis in Hep-2 cells by regulating the expression of both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic proteins, i.e., Bcl-2, Bax, apoptososme complex and death receptors, more efficiently than curcumin. We also observed increased nuclear fragmentation and chromatin condensation after BDMC-A treatment compared to curcumin treatment. Depolarized mitochondria and ROS generation was well pronounced in both BDMC-A and curcumin treated Hep-2 cells. Our in silico molecular docking study on the EGFR kinase domain revealed that BDMC-A may dock more efficiently than curcumin.

Conclusions

From our results we conclude that BDMC-A can induce apoptosis in Hep-2 laryngeal carcinoma cells more effectively than curcumin, and that this activity can be attributed to the presence of a hydroxyl group at the ortho position within this compound.
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Metadata
Title
Apoptosis induction by an analog of curcumin (BDMC-A) in human laryngeal carcinoma cells through intrinsic and extrinsic pathways
Authors
Kumaravel Mohankumar
Sankar Pajaniradje
Subhashree Sridharan
Vivek Kumar Singh
Larance Ronsard
Akhil C. Banerjea
Benson Chellakkan Selvanesan
Mohane Selvaraj Coumar
Latha Periyasamy
Rukkumani Rajagopalan
Publication date
01-12-2014
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
Cellular Oncology / Issue 6/2014
Print ISSN: 2211-3428
Electronic ISSN: 2211-3436
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13402-014-0207-3

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