Research Paper|Volume 15, Issue 6|pp 2221—2236

Promising antitumor effects of the curcumin analog DMC-BH on colorectal cancer cells

Gang Liu^1,², Jian Chen^1,², Zhicheng Bao³

¹Department of General Surgery, Suzhou Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou 215300, Jiangsu Province, China
²Department of General Surgery, Affiliated Kunshan Hospital of Jiangsu University, Suzhou 215300, Jiangsu Province, China
³Department of Rehabilitation, Gusu School, Nanjing Medical University, The First People's Hospital of Kunshan, Suzhou 215300, Jiangsu Province, China

Received: October 21, 2022Accepted: March 4, 2023Published: March 24, 2023

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204610

Copyright: © 2023 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common malignant tumor of the digestive system worldwide. DMC-BH, a curcumin analog, has been reported to possess anticancer properties against human gliomas. However, its effects and mechanism on CRC cells are still unknown. Our present study demonstrated that DMC-BH had stronger cytostatic ability than curcumin against CRC cells in vitro and in vivo. It effectively inhibited the proliferation and invasion and promoted the apoptosis of HCT116 and HT-29 cells. RNA-Seq and data analysis indicated that its effects might be mediated by regulation of the PI3K/AKT signaling. Western blotting further confirmed that it dose-dependently suppressed the phosphorylation of PI3K, AKT and mTOR. The Akt pathway activator SC79 reversed the proapoptotic effects of DMC-BH on CRC cells, indicating that its effects are mediated by PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling. Collectively, the results of the present study suggest that DMC-BH exerts more potent effects than curcumin against CRC by inactivating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.