Curcumin and EGCG: Potential cancer therapeutics

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2018-05-11

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Abstract

The incidence rates of colon and liver cancer differ dramatically between Northern and Southern India. It has been suggested that diet plays an important role in their occurrence. The consumption rates of curcumin and EGCG in these regions are diverse as well. The compounds chosen for this study are curcumin, an active agent of turmeric and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), an active compound of green tea. Numerous studies have demonstrated the multi targeted and beneficial effects of curcumin and EGCG as chemo preventive agents. The problem of using high concentrations of natural compounds to be effects can be overcome by using a combination of these compounds. This study seeks to demonstrate the individual and combined effects of two natural compounds on liver and colon cancer cell lines and their role when used in combination with regorafenib, a chemotherapy drug used currently in the treatment for both colon and liver cancer. A probe of 84 cancer pathway genes determined that the curcumin and EGCG combination targets 28 genes in hepatocarcinoma (HCC) and 14 genes in colorectal cancer (CRC). Our study confirmed the beneficial effects of ARNT, FGF2, IGFBP7 and SERPINF1 expression in HCC and ANGPT2 and IGFBP7 expressions in CRC when treated with low concentrations of curcumin and EGCG. HepG2 cells treated with regorafenib showed regulatory effects on FGF2 expression very similar to curcumin and EGCG combination treatment. IGFBP7 expression was significantly affected in both HCC and CRC when treated with regorafenib, plus curcumin and EGCG combination. In CRC, ANGPT2 expression was significantly affected by regorafenib.

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Keywords

cancer, curcumin, EGCG

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