Preventive Effect of Curcumin Against Chemotherapy-Induced Side-Effects

Abstract

Cancer is still a severe threat to the health of people worldwide. Chemotherapy is one of main therapeutic approaches to combat cancer. However, chemotherapy only has a limited success with severe side effects, especially causing damage to normal tissues such as bone marrow, gastrointestine, heart, liver, renal, neuron, and auditory tissues, etc. The side-effects limit clinical outcome of chemotherapy and lower patients’ quality of life, and even make many patients discontinue the chemotherapy. Thus, there is a need to explore effective adjuvant strategies to prevent and reduce the chemotherapy-induced side effects. Naturally occurring products provide a rich source for exploring effective adjuvant agents to prevent and reduce the side effects in anticancer chemotherapy. Curcumin is an active compound from natural plant Curcuma longa L., which is widely used as a coloring and flavoring agent in food industry and a herbal medicine in Asian countries for thousands of years to treat vomiting, headache, diarrhea, etc. Modern pharmacological studies have revealed that curcumin has strong antioxidative, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities. Growing evidence shows that curcumin is able to prevent carcinogenesis, sensitize cancer cells to chemotherapy, and protect normal cells from chemotherapy-induced damages. In the present article, we review the preventive effect of curcumin against chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression, gastrointestinal toxicity, cardiotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, neurotoxicity, ototoxicity, and genotoxicity, and discuss its action mechanisms.

Highly Bioavailable Forms of Curcumin and Promising Avenues for Curcumin-Based Research and Application: A Review

“…These projects are at different stages (Phase I through Phase III) of execution. Curcumin also shows profound antitoxic properties in diverse target organs, such as, alleviation of neurotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, hemato-toxicity, genotoxicity and hepatotoxicity [13,55]. Additional attributes that curcumin offers are its capacity to confer properties of electron receptors which destabilize reactive oxygen species (ROS), therefore explaining its antioxidant and anti-cell death (necrotic, apoptotic or aponecrotic) effects.…”

“…In this regard, curcumin-mediated enhanced expression of pro-apoptotic molecules such as BAK and BID, and reduced expression of anti-apoptotic molecules such as BCL-2, BCL-XL and MCL-1 in the chemotherapy-treated cancer cells remains an active area of research. Furthermore, curcumin's synergistic effect on docetaxel to activate tumor suppressor p53 and inhibit phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2) are noteworthy reports [53,55,57].…”

<p>The Safety and Exploration of the Pharmacokinetics of Intrapleural Liposomal Curcumin</p>

“…40 It has also been shown to reduce chemotherapy-induced toxic side effects. 41,42 To the best of our knowledge, curcumin has never been administered directly into the pleural cavity of animals, or humans. Therefore, the safety and compartmental distribution of intrapleural liposomal curcumin following intrapleural needs to be evaluated.…”

Protective effect of curcumin on busulfan-induced renal toxicity in male rats

“…Furthermore, current studies have shown that curcumin is capable to hinder carcinogenesis in sensitive cells after chemotherapy and protects normal cells from the damages caused by chemotherapy [12,13]. According to antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin, a protective effect against kidney damages and renal toxicity following chemotherapeutic drugs administration has been reported [15,16]. Furthermore, it has been revealed that curcumin is able to show protecting effects against ischemic renal impairment by upregulation of antioxidant gene expression, mainly Mn-superoxide dismutase, the antioxidant enzyme in the mitochondrial matrix [15,16].…”

“…According to antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin, a protective effect against kidney damages and renal toxicity following chemotherapeutic drugs administration has been reported [15,16]. Furthermore, it has been revealed that curcumin is able to show protecting effects against ischemic renal impairment by upregulation of antioxidant gene expression, mainly Mn-superoxide dismutase, the antioxidant enzyme in the mitochondrial matrix [15,16]. For the reason that many people are suffering worldwide from side effects of chemotherapy drugs, the aim of this study was to estimate the effects of curcumin in an experimental model of busulfan-induced renal toxicity with emphasis on importance of histological alterations.…”