Curcumin, a polyphenol compound derived from the rhizome of the plant Curcuma longa L. has been verified as an anticancer compound against several types of cancer. However, understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which it induces apoptosis is limited. In this study, the anticancer efficacy of curcumin was investigated in human gastric adenocarcinoma SGC-7901 cells. The results demonstrated that curcumin induced morphological changes and decreased cell viability. Apoptosis triggered by curcumin was visualized using Annexin V-FITC/7-AAD staining. Curcumin-induced apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells was associated with the dissipation of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and the release of cytochrome c into the cytosol. Furthermore, the down-regulation of Bcl-2 and up-regulation of Bax that led to the cleavage of caspase-3 and increased cleaved PARP was observed in SGC-7901 cells treated with curcumin. Therefore, curcumin-induced apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells might be mediated through the mitochondria pathway, which gives the rationale for in vivo studies on the utilization of curcumin as a potential cancer therapeutic compound.
A new
tin(IV)-based perovskite-type hybrid semiconductor, bis(trimethyliodomethylammonium)
hexachloridostannate(IV) ([TMIM]2SnCl6), has been synthesized as a switchable dielectric phase transition
material, featuring a zero-dimensional inorganic architecture of [SnCl6]2– octahedra and organic [TMIM]+ cations. It is found that [TMIM]2SnCl6 displays
a reversible structural phase transition at 329 K, demonstrated by
the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements. The dielectric
constant exhibits remarkable steplike anomaly around the phase transition
temperature (T
c), indicating switchable
dielectric behaviors. Variable-temperature structure analyses disclose
that the drastic symmetry breaking occurs with the structure transferring
from Fm3̅m to C2/c by the temperature decreasing. The mechanism
of such a transition is associated with the order–disorder
transformation of organic ammonium and the displacement of the inorganic
framework, which benefits from the discrete anionic architectures
that provide enough space. Meanwhile, [TMIM]2SnCl6 shows a semiconducting property with a wide optical bandgap of ∼4.83
eV. This finding of the Sn(IV)-based metal halide with prominent phase
transition and semiconducting behaviors will direct an executable
pathway for designing novel multifunctional perovskite-type switchable
materials.
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