Development and progression of many malignancies, including colorectal cancer, are associated with activation of multiple signaling pathways. Therefore, inhibition of these signaling pathways with noncytotoxic natural products represents a logical preventive and/or therapeutic approach for colon cancer. Curcumin and resveratrol, both of which inhibit the growth of transformed cells and colon carcinogenesis, were selected to examine whether combining them would be an effective preventive and/or therapeutic strategy for colon cancer. Indeed, the combination of curcumin and resveratrol was found to be more effective in inhibiting growth of p53-positive (wt) and p53-negative colon cancer HCT-116 cells in vitro and in vivo in SCID xenografts of colon cancer HCT-116 (wt) cells than either agent alone. Analysis by Calcusyn software showed synergism between curcumin and resveratrol. The inhibition of tumors in response to curcumin and/or resveratrol was associated with the reduction in proliferation and stimulation of apoptosis accompanied by attenuation of NF-kappaB activity. In vitro studies have further demonstrated that the combinatorial treatment caused a greater inhibition of constitutive activation of EGFR and its family members as well as IGF-1R. Our current data suggest that the combination of curcumin and resveratrol could be an effective preventive/therapeutic strategy for colon cancer.

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p-Anilinoaniline (pAA) is an aromatic amine that is widely used in hair dying applications. It is also a metabolite of metanil yellow, an azo dye that is commonly used as a food coloring agent. Concentrations of pAA between 10–25 μM were cytostatic to cultures of the normal human mammary epithelia cell line MCF10A. Concentrations ≥ 50 μM were cytotoxic. Cytostatic concentrations induced transient G1 and S cell cycle phase arrests; whereas cytotoxic concentrations induced protracted arrests. Cytotoxic concentrations of pAA caused DNA damage, as monitored by the alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis (Comet) assay, and morphological changes consistent with cells undergoing apoptosis and/or autophagy. Enzymatic and western blot analyses, and binding analyses of fluorescent labeled VAD-FMK, suggested that caspase family members were activated by pAA. Western blot analyses documented the conversion of LC3-I to LC3-II, a post-translational modification involved in the development of the autophagosome. Suppression of autophagosome formation, via knockdown of ATG7 with shRNA, prevented pAA-induced vacuolization, enhanced the activation of pro-caspase-3, and increased susceptibility of ATG7-deficient cells to the cytostatic and cytotoxic activities of markedly lower concentrations of pAA. Cells stably transfected with a nonsense shRNA behaved like parental MCF10A cells. Collectively, these data suggest that MCF10A cultures undergo autophagy as a pro-survival response to concentrations of pAA sufficient to induce DNA damage.

ABSTRACT:The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is targeted by ubiquitination for degradation by the proteasome shortly after its activation by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). In silico screening identified p-anilinoaniline (pAA) as a putative inhibitor of an E2 ligase that partners with an E3 ligase implicated in AhR ubiquitination. We investigated whether pAA could modify AhR-dependent activation of its target gene CYP1A1. pAA (