Author(s)

Abeer A. Khamis^1*, Amira H. Sharshar¹, Amal H. Mahmoud², Tarek M. Mohamed¹

¹Biochemistry Division, Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt.
²Head Researcher of Special Food and Nutrition Department, Food Technology, Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt.

Curcumin the active component of turmeric is widely used as an anticancer agent for treating many human cancers. This study aimed at the extraction of curcumin from Curcuma Longa and investigates its therapeutic effect as ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) inhibitor in HepG2 cells. The proliferation of HepG2 cells was carried out by using the MTT assay. In addition, cell cycle analysis was evaluated by using the flow-cytometric technique. Our results showed that curcumin has the ability to inhibit the proliferation of HepG2 cells with IC50 of 24.79 μg/ml and induced G2/M cell cycle arrest. Moreover, it caused an elevation in the intracellular concentration of Ca²⁺. Moreover, in the curcumin administration the downregulation expression level of ODC and Bcl-2 genes (p ≤ 0.05) was significant found. On the other hand, upregulation in the expression level of P53, Bax, and caspase-3 genes (p ≤ 0.05). This study concluded that curcumin may be considered as a new saving candidate for the future progress of antitumor agents.

Curcumin-HepG2 Cells-Apoptosis, Ornithine Decarboxylase, Bax, Cell Cycle

Khamis, A. , Sharshar, A. , Mahmoud, A. and Mohamed, T. (2019) The Inhibitory Effect of Curcumin on Ornithine Decarboxylase against Hepatic Carcinoma. Journal of Biosciences and Medicines, 7, 127-145. doi: 10.4236/jbm.2019.75015.