SummaryThe main difficulty in the successful treatment of metastatic melanoma is that this type of cancer is known to be resistant to chemotherapy. Chemotherapy remains the treatment of choice and dacarbazine (DTIC) is the best standard treatment. The DM-1 compound is a curcumin analog that possesses several curcumin characteristics, such as antiproliferative, antitumor and antimetastatic properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the signaling pathways involved in melanoma cell death after treatment with DM-1 compared to the standard agent for melanoma treatment, DTIC. Altogether, these data confirm DM-1 as a chemotherapeutic agent with effective tumor control properties and a lower incidence of side effects in normal cells compared to DTIC.

Malignant melanoma is a highly aggressive form of skin cancer with a high mortality rate if not discovered in early stages. Although a limited number of treatment options for melanoma currently exist, patients with a more aggressive form of this cancer frequently decline treatment. DM-1 is a sodium phenolate and curcumin analog with proven anticancer, anti-proliferative and anti-metastatic properties. In this paper, the DM-1 compound showed in vivo antitumor activity alone or in combination with chemotherapeutic DTIC in B16F10 melanoma-bearing mice. Beneficial effects such as melanoma tumor burden reduction with pyknotic nuclei, decreased nuclei/cytoplasmic ratio and nuclear degradation occurred after DM-1 treatment. No toxicological changes were observed in the liver, kidneys, spleen and lungs after DM-1 monotherapy or DTIC combined therapy. DTIC+DM-1 treatment induced the recovery of anemia arising from melanoma and immunomodulation. Both DM-1 treatment alone and in combination with DTIC induced apoptosis with the cleavage of caspase-3, -8 and -9. Furthermore, melanoma tumors treated with DM-1 showed a preferential apoptotic intrinsic pathway by decreasing Bcl-2/Bax ratio. Considering the chemoresistance exhibited by melanoma towards conventional chemotherapy drugs, DM-1 compound in monotherapy or in combination therapy provides a promising improvement in melanoma treatment with a reduction of side effects.

This paper describes a new method for the preparation of sodium 4-[5-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-3-oxo-penta-1,4-dienyl]-2-methoxy-phenolate, DM-1, and 3-oxo-penta-1,4-dienyl-bis (2-methoxy-phenolate), DM-2. The aim of this work was to evaluate the antitumor effects of DM-1 in adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer treatment. Mice bearing mammary adenocarcinomas (Ehrlich ascites tumors) were treated with paclitaxel alone, DM-1 alone, and paclitaxel + DM-1. Tumor samples were used to perform cytological analysis by the Papanicolaou method and apoptosis analysis by annexin V and phosphorylated caspase 3. The paclitaxel + DM-1 group had decreased tumor areas and tumor volumes, and the frequency of metastasis was significantly reduced. This caused a decrease in cachexia, which is usually caused by the tumor. Furthermore, treatment with paclitaxel + DM-1 and DM-1 alone increased the occurrence of apoptosis up to 40% in tumor cells, which is 35% more than in the group treated with paclitaxel alone. This cell death was mainly caused through phosphorylated caspase 3 (11% increase in paclitaxel + DM-1 compared to the paclitaxel group), as confirmed by reduced malignancy criteria in the ascitic fluid. DM-1 emerges as a potential treatment for breast cancer and may act as an adjuvant in chemotherapy, enhancing antitumor drug activity with reduced side effects.

This paper describes a new method for the preparation of 1,5-bis(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1,4-pentadien-3-one 1 and its derivatives 2-5. This set of synthetic compounds exhibited high antitumoral activities regarding in vitro screening against several human tumor cell lines as lung carcinoma NCI-460, melanoma UACC-62, breast MCF-7, colon HT-29, renal 786-O, ovarian OVCAR-03 and ovarian expressing the resistance phenotype for adriamycin NCI-ADR/RES, prostate PC-3, and leukemia K-562. Compounds were also tested against murine tumor cell line B16F10 melanoma and lymphocytic leukemia L1210 as well as to their effect toward normal macrophages. Specific activity against colon cancer cells HT-29 was observed for all tested compounds and suggests further studies with models of colon cancer. Compounds 1, 2, and 4 showed significant cytotoxic activity with IC(50) values 2.3 microM for all human cancer cell lines. Intraperitoneal acute administration of compound 1 and 2 showed very low toxicity rate.