Curcumin mediates polyamine metabolism and sensitizes gastrointestinal cancer cells to antitumor polyamine-targeted therapies
Fig 2
Effects of curcumin on polyamines and their biosynthetic enzymes in AGS cells.
AGS gastric carcinoma cells were treated for 48 h with curcumin followed by analyses of mRNA expression and enzyme activity levels of the polyamine biosynthetic enzymes ODC (A) and SAMDC (encoded by the AMD1 gene) (B). (C) Curcumin decreased intracellular polyamine pools and inhibited growth of AGS cells (SPM: spermine; SPD: spermidine; PUT: putrescine). (Inset) Linear regression of spermine concentration versus % of viable cells remaining relative to untreated cells in response to increasing doses of curcumin (p < 0.001). Graphs depict the means of data collected from at least 2 separate biological experiments, each measured in triplicate (duplicate for HPLC), with error bars indicating standard error of the mean. *p < 0.05 relative to untreated.