2009 Annual Meeting
(549d) Curcumin Polymers as Anticancer Prodrugs
Authors
Shen, Y. - Presenter, University of Wyoming
Tang, H. - Presenter, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Wyoming
Murphy, C. J. - Presenter, University of Wyoming
Van Kirk, E. A. - Presenter, Department of Animal Science, University of Wyoming
Murdoch, W. J. - Presenter, Department of Animal Science, University of Wyoming
Radosz, M. - Presenter, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Wyoming
Taking the advantage of the symmetric structure and bi-hydroxyl functionalities of the curcumin molecule, curcumin is polymerized to high molecular weight polymers (polycurcumins) by condensation polymerizations. These polycurcumins had high curcumin content and adjustable water-solubility. Especially, the hydrolysable polycurcumins show significantly higher cytotoxicity than free curcumin against human SKOV-3, MCF-7, and OVCAR cancer cell lines with IC50 of 1.2 ìg/mL, 1.4 ìg/mL and 0.4 µg/mL, respectively, based on the curcumin equivalent dose. The polymer down-regulates the cyclin D1 and CDK4, CDK6 of SKOV-3 in a dose a dose-dependent fashion and arrests SKOV-3 cell cycle at G0/G1 phase. The cell apoptosis via caspase-3-dependent pathway induced by polycurcumin 8 is observed. In vivo, the polymer demonstrates remarkable antitumor activity in SKOV-3 xenograft mice model.