Title:Synergism of Curcumin and Cytarabine in the Down Regulation of Multi-Drug Resistance Genes in Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Volume: 16
Issue: 1
Author(s): Krupa Shah, Sheefa Mirza, Urja Desai, Nayan Jain and Rakesh Rawal
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Acute myeloid leukemia, curcumin, cytarabine, multi drug resistance.
Abstract: Background: The aim of the study was to find a role of Curcumin from natural source to overcome drug
resistance as well as to reduce cytotoxicity profile of the drug in Acute Myeloid Leukemia patients.
Material and Methods: Primary leukemic cells were obtained from AML patient’s bone marrow. These cells were
then exposed to different concentration of cytarabine and curcumin to find out IC50 values and also its effect on
MDR genes like MDR1, BCRP, LRP and FLT3 by RT-PCR method.
Result & Conclusion: Our results suggested that curcumin down regulates MDR genes. Gene expression was
decreased by 35.75, 31.30, 27.97 % for MDR1, LRP, BCRP respectively. In FLT3, it was 65.86 % for wild type
and 31.79 % for FLT3-ITD. In addition to this, curcumin has also shown anti-proliferative effect as well as synergistic effect in
combination with Cytarabine on primary leukemic cells. Thus, we can conclude that curcumin can be used as MDR modulator as well as
chemosensitizer in combination with cytarabine, standard chemotherapeutic drug, to reduce the cytotoxicity profile as IC50 value
decreases when treated in combination.