Curcumin causes the growth arrest and apoptosis of B cell lymphoma by downregulation of egr-1, C-myc, Bcl-X-L, NF-kappa B, and p53

It has been well known that curcumin is a powerful inhibitor of proliferati on of several tumor cells. However, the molecular basis of the anti-prolife rative effect of curcumin has not been investigated in detail. In this pape r, we present evidence to show that curcumin inhibited proliferation of a v ariety of B lymphoma cells. At low concentrations curcumin inhibited the pr oliferation of BKS-2, an immature B cell lymphoma, more effectively than th at of normal B lymphocytes and caused the apoptosis of BKS-2 cells in a dos e- and time-dependent manner. Furthermore, curcumin downregulated the expre ssion of survival genes egr-1, c-myc, and bcl-X-L as well as the tumor supp ressor gene p53 in B cells. In addition, NF-kappa B binding activity was al so downregulated almost completely by curcumin, Stimulation with CpG oligon ucleotides or anti-CD40 overcame growth inhibition induced by low concentra tions of curcumin, Our results suggest that curcumin caused the growth arre st and apoptosis of BKS-2 immature B cell lymphoma by downregulation of gro wth and survival promoting genes, (C) 1999 Academic Press.