Table 3.
Molecular targets of curcumin and relative effects and diseases involved.
| Targets of Curcumin | Effects of Curcumin | Diseases Involved |
|---|---|---|
| Activation of redox-regulated transcription factor Nrf2 that induces heme oxygenase 1 (HO1) paraoxonase 1 (PON1) and GSH 3 [58,60,61,62] | Free-radical-scavenging activity | Chronic inflammatory diseases |
| Inhibition of DNA-binding of STAT3 3 [63] | Anti-inflammatory activity | Chronic inflammatory diseases |
| Reduced phosphorylation of cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2) limiting the arachidonic acid availability [64] | Anti-inflammatory activity | Chronic inflammatory diseases |
| Reduced phosphorylation of IκB [65] | Anti-inflammatory activity | Chronic inflammatory diseases Cancer |
| Inhibition of the transcription factor Nf-κB [65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72] | Anti-inflammatory activityAnti-oxidant activity Tumor suppressive activity |
Chronic inflammatory diseases Cancer |
| Inhibition of mRNA levels of COX2 and iNOS [73,74,75,76] | Anti-inflammatory activity Tumor suppressive activity |
Chronic inflammatory diseases Cancer |
| Inhibition of matrix metalloproteinases MMP-9 and MMP-2 [72,77,78, 79] | Tumor suppressive activity (Anti-inflammatory activity) |
Cancer (Chronic inflammatory diseases) |
| Inhibition of histone deacetylases (HDACs) and acetyltransferases (HATs) activity [80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88] | Gene regulation | Cancer |
| Up-regulation and down-regulation of micro RNA (22, 199, 186, 203) [80,89,90,91] | Pro-apoptotic activity Tumor suppressive activity |
Cancer |
| Activation of caspase 3, 7, 8 and caspase 9 [92,93,94] | Pro-apoptotic activity | Cancer |
| Increased cleavage of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) [67,95] | Pro-apoptotic activity | Cancer |
| Up-regulation of several tumor suppressor genes [95,96,97,98,99] | Tumor suppressive activity | Cancer |
| Up-regulation of different proapoptotic genes [100,101,102,103] | Pro-apoptotic activity Tumor suppressive activity |
Cancer |
| Inactivation of several oncogenes [104,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,112] | Tumor suppressive activity | Cancer |
| Down-regulation of different antiapoptotic genes [113,114] | Pro-apoptotic activity Tumor suppressive activity |
Cancer |
| Inhibition of angiogenesis suppressing VEGF, Akt and PI3K [65,115,116,117,118] | Tumor suppressive activity | Cancer |
| Inhibition of enzymes of phase I reactions [119,120,121] | Tumor suppressive activity | Cancer |
| Activation of enzymes of phase II reactions [122,123,124,125,126,127,128] | Tumor suppressive activity | Cancer |
| Down-regulation of androgen receptor (AR) [110,129,130,131] | Tumor suppressive activity | Cancer |
| Repressed N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-mediated Ca2+ [132,133,134,135,136] | Protection from excitotoxicity | Neurodegenerative diseases |
| Reduced oxidative mitochondrial damage [137,138,139,140] | Antioxidative activity | Neurodegenerative diseases |