Key Compound in Turmeric Provides Protective Benefits against Colon Cancer

Sharon Moore August 28, 2014

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Researchers from the University of Arizona’s Steele Children’s Research Centre discovered that curcumin – the bioactive molecule derived from the spice turmeric – blocks the protein cortactin in colon cancer.

Cortactin, a protein essential for cell movement, frequently is overexpressed in cancer, thus facilitating cancer cell metastasis to other organs in the body.

The study was led by co-investigators Dr Fayez K. Ghishan, professor and head of the UA Department of Paediatrics and director of the Steele Children’s Research Centre; Pawel Kiela, associate professor in the UA Department of Paediatrics; and Vijay Radhakrishnan, assistant scientist in the UA Department of Paediatrics. The study was conducted in collaboration with Jesse Martinez, a professor in the UA Cancer Centre, and Eugene Mash, a professor in the UA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Turmeric gives curry its yellow colour and flavour. It is part of the ginger family and has been used for thousands of years to treat colds, inflammation, arthritis and many other ailments, including cancer.

Curcumin is the active ingredient in turmeric and has been scientifically studied in many types of cancer. It has been shown to have a chemo-preventative effect or the ability to reverse, suppress or prevent the development of cancer. "What’s novel about our research is that our study identified one of the mechanisms by which curcumin can prevent cancer cell metastasis in colon cancer," Ghishan said.

The researchers discovered that the active part of the cortactin protein, known as Phopsho Tyrosine 421 (pTyr421), is hyper-activated in malignant tumours of the colon. Phosphorylation is the addition of a phosphate group to a protein, and is responsible for turning proteins on and off, altering the protein’s function and activity. Too much cortactin, and its activation by phosphorylation, has been linked with cancer aggressiveness.

"We discovered that curcumin turns off the active form of cortactin," said Radhakrishnan, who led the experiments in the lab. "Thus, when cortactin is turned off, cancer cells lose the ability to move and can’t metastasize to other parts of the body."

Kiela explained that such effect, called ’dephosphorylating cortactin’, correlated with reduced ability of colon cancer cells to migrate.

"Treatments aimed at the suppression of cancer metastasis remain an urgent therapeutic need," Ghishan said. "Our findings have laid the foundation for future research to develop treatments using curcumin to prevent cancer’s deadly spread to other organs."

Colon cancer is a general term for cancer that begins in the large bowel. When cancer metastasizes to other organs, a patient’s chances of survival are greatly diminished. Thus, finding novel ways to prevent cancer metastasis remains an urgent need.

The new study was published in the journal Plos One.

Source of this article: pTyr421 Cortactin Is Overexpressed in Colon Cancer and Is Dephosphorylated by Curcumin: Involvement of Non-Receptor Type 1 Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase (PTPN1)