Abstract
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a malignant tumour of Head and Neck Cancer (HNC). The recent therapeutic approaches used to treat cancer have adverse side effects. The natural agents exhibiting anticancer activities are generally considered to have a robust therapeutic potential. Curcuminoids, one of the major active compounds of the turmeric herb, are used as a therapeutic agent for several diseases including cancer. In this study, the cytotoxicity of curcuminoids was investigated against OSCC cell line HNO97. Our data showed that curcuminoids significantly inhibits the proliferation of HNO97 in a time and dose-dependent manner (IC50=35 μM). Cell cycle analysis demonstrated that curcuminoids increased the percentage of G2/M phase cell populations in the treated groups. Treating HNO97 cells with curcuminoids led to cell shrinking and increased detached cells, which are the typical appearance of apoptotic cells. Moreover, flow cytometry analysis revealed that curcuminoids significantly induced apoptosis in a time-dependent manner. Furthermore, as a response to curcuminoids treatment, comet tails were formed in cell nuclei due to the induction of DNA damage. Curcuminoids treatment reduced the colony formation capacity of HNO97 cells and induced morphological changes. Overall, these findings demonstrate that curcuminoids can in vitro inhibit HNC proliferation and metastasis and induce apoptosis.
Highlights
Head and neck cancer (HNC) is generally defined as a span of malignant neoplasms that originate from the soft tissues include the oral and nasal cavities, sinuses, lips, salivary glands, throat, and larynx (Joshi et al, 2014)
Curcuminoids significantly inhibited cell proliferation starting from the concentration of 5 μM and the inhibition percentage reached approximately 50% at 35 μM suggesting that curcuminoids exert its inhibitory effects on HNO97 with an estimated IC50 value of approximately 35 μM (Figure 1A)
Curcuminoids have been shown to exert multiple anticancer activities including the inhibition of cell proliferation, metastasis and angiogenesis (Shakeri et al, 2019)
Summary
Head and neck cancer (HNC) is generally defined as a span of malignant neoplasms that originate from the soft tissues include the oral and nasal cavities, sinuses, lips, salivary glands, throat, and larynx (Joshi et al, 2014). According to the GLOBOCAN 2018 statistics, the estimated number of new HNC diagnosed and deaths were about 705,781 and 358,144, respectively. Current therapeutic regimens for HNC based on surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, often in combination, resulting in negative side effects such as malformation and failure of some organs (Seront et al, 2019). The development of drug resistance by cancer cells is another challenge associated with currently available chemotherapeutic approaches (Ramezani et al, 2019). There is an urgent need to find new selective drugs to minimize the adverse effects of current cancer therapeutic approaches and to improve clinical outcomes
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