There is discussion off and on here in the forum about curcumin and whether or not it is effective as an anti-myeloma therapy. I therefore thought there might be interest in a new French study that was just published.
The study investigated the effect curcumin has on 29 different human myeloma cell lines. It found that 16 of the cell lines were "highly" sensitive to myeloma, 6 were "intermediately" sensitive, and 7 were "weakly" sensitive.
I only have access to the article abstract and, in it, the authors do not make any comparison between the sensitivity of the cell lines to curcumin versus the sensitivity of the cell lines to existing myeloma therapies. So I can't tell how significant the sensitivity the authors found really is.
However, the authors write in the conclusion to their abstract that, "Altogether, these results support clinical trials including curcumin in association with standard therapy."
It is worth noting that one of the co-authors of the study is Dr. Philippe Moreau, one of the leading myeloma specialists in France.
Here's more information about the study:
P Gomez-Bougie et al., "Curcumin induces cell death of the main molecular myeloma subtypes, particularly the poor prognosis subgroups," Cancer Biology & Therapy, 2014 (abstract, full text PDF)
Abstract::
Multiple myeloma (multiple myeloma), a plasma cell malignancy, remains incurable despite the development of new therapies. Curcumin anti-tumor effects were previously characterized in multiple myeloma, however only few multiple myeloma cell lines were included in these studies. Since myeloma is a heterogeneous disease it is important to address the impact of myeloma molecular heterogeneity in curcumin cell death induction.
In the present study, a large panel of human myeloma cell lines (HMCLs) (n = 29), representing the main molecular multiple myeloma subgroups, was screened for curcumin sensitivity. We observed that curcumin cell death induction was heterogeneous, of note 16 HMCLs were highly sensitive to curcumin (LD50 < 20.5μM), 6 HMCLs exhibited intermediate LD50 values (20.5μM ≤ LD50 < 32.2μM) and only 7 HMCLs were weakly sensitive (35 < LD50 < 56μM).
Cell lines harboring the t(11;14) translocation were less sensitive (median LD50 32.9μM) than non-t(11;14) (median LD50 17.9μM), which included poor prognosis t(4;14) and t(14;16) cells. Interestingly, curcumin sensitivity was not dependent on TP53 status.
For the first time we showed that primary myeloma cells were also sensitive, even those displaying del(17p), another poor prognosis factor. We also unravel the contribution of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family molecules in curcumin response. We found that down-regulation of Mcl-1, an essential multiple myeloma survival factor, was associated with curcumin-induced cell death and its knockdown sensitized myeloma cells to curcumin, highlighting Mcl-1 as an important target for curcumin-induced apoptosis.
Altogether, these results support clinical trials including curcumin in association with standard therapy.
Forums
Re: Curcumin & multiple myeloma - new preclinical study
Thank you for the post. That is really valuable information!
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Melpen - Name: Melissa
- Who do you know with myeloma?: myself
- When were you/they diagnosed?: Feb 5, 2014
- Age at diagnosis: 57
Re: Curcumin & multiple myeloma - new preclinical study
Thanks for the posting, Jim.
Readers interested in other discussions here in the forum specifically about curcumin can find a list of them at this link.
Also, Beacon news articles related to curcumin, including information on other studies that have been done on curcumin's anti-myeloma activity, can be found at this link.
Readers interested in other discussions here in the forum specifically about curcumin can find a list of them at this link.
Also, Beacon news articles related to curcumin, including information on other studies that have been done on curcumin's anti-myeloma activity, can be found at this link.
Re: Curcumin & multiple myeloma - new preclinical study
I wonder if anyone has any information about the effectiveness of cucurmin with piperine on myeloma cell lines.
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caregiver
Re: Curcumin & multiple myeloma - new preclinical study
I have read to take curcumin with pepper and some fat whether olive oil or coconut oil as the pepper and fat help the body to absorb curcumin, but what isn't clear to me is the dose of curcumin needed. Does anyone know the ideal dose?
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Melpen - Name: Melissa
- Who do you know with myeloma?: myself
- When were you/they diagnosed?: Feb 5, 2014
- Age at diagnosis: 57
Re: Curcumin & multiple myeloma - new preclinical study
I've asked myself the same question, Melissa. After searching the forums here and reading the discussions on curcumin and other supplements, I found that people often try to take up to 8,000 mg a day of curcumin, usually as 8 x 1,000 mg capsules spread out over the day. However, not everyone finds that they can tolerate that high a dose, with many people settling at doses about half that or a little less.
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Jonah
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Multibilly - Name: Multibilly
- Who do you know with myeloma?: Me
- When were you/they diagnosed?: Smoldering, Nov, 2012
Re: Curcumin & multiple myeloma - new preclinical study
Thank you for the article. My oncologist says many things kill myeloma in vitro (in test tube) but not in actual human beings. I wish doctors would get a number of clinical studies going involving the curcumin with actual myeloma patients (newly diagnosed and advanced) and see what the data shows. I would think it's worth a look. What is there to lose? Perhaps much to be gained.
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Melpen - Name: Melissa
- Who do you know with myeloma?: myself
- When were you/they diagnosed?: Feb 5, 2014
- Age at diagnosis: 57
Re: Curcumin & multiple myeloma - new preclinical study
Hi Melpen,
I think many here are with you and would like to see more clinical trials In this area as well. After all, who would have thought that the rosy periwinkle plant would be largely responsible for the 95 percent cure rate of childhood leukemia? (via vinblastine)
No specifics yet, but I had heard that there was a possibility of hybrid compound molecules which would bind curcumin and some novel agent being developed. Still a long way from clinical trials but there is always hope.
The whole clinical trial landscape becomes expensive with industry sponsored trials. An older ASCO study in 2003 put the cost around 100 million dollars for new drug development. There is also NIH grant funding which is available but complex rules and additional costs etc keep many from pursuing.
For curcumin specific funding, there is not a patent to reimburse the cost outlay, so there must be some value added proprietary formulation method, bioavailability enhancer, or such to differentiate one from another.
Perhaps the blending of one of these super bioavailible curcumin formulations, with existing novel agents such as Revlimid would be successful.
My best to you! BN
I think many here are with you and would like to see more clinical trials In this area as well. After all, who would have thought that the rosy periwinkle plant would be largely responsible for the 95 percent cure rate of childhood leukemia? (via vinblastine)
No specifics yet, but I had heard that there was a possibility of hybrid compound molecules which would bind curcumin and some novel agent being developed. Still a long way from clinical trials but there is always hope.
The whole clinical trial landscape becomes expensive with industry sponsored trials. An older ASCO study in 2003 put the cost around 100 million dollars for new drug development. There is also NIH grant funding which is available but complex rules and additional costs etc keep many from pursuing.
For curcumin specific funding, there is not a patent to reimburse the cost outlay, so there must be some value added proprietary formulation method, bioavailability enhancer, or such to differentiate one from another.
Perhaps the blending of one of these super bioavailible curcumin formulations, with existing novel agents such as Revlimid would be successful.
My best to you! BN
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Bar-none - Who do you know with myeloma?: Me
- When were you/they diagnosed?: 3/14
Re: Curcumin & multiple myeloma - new preclinical study
As used in the statement below, which is from the article mentioned at the start of this thread, what does "10 and 20 μM" mean? I tried to google the "μM" but am lost in micrometers. Can anyone please translate?
Thanks, Kate
Thanks, Kate
We next examined curcumin effect on primary MM cells, to this aim CD138 positive cells obtained from 9 MM or secondary plasma cell leukemia patients were treated with 10 and 20 μM curcumin during 24h, cell death was evaluated by the loss of CD138 expression.
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Kate - Name: Kate
- Who do you know with myeloma?: myself
- When were you/they diagnosed?: Dec. 2012
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