The short-time treatment with curcumin sufficiently decreases cell viability, induces apoptosis and copper enhances these effects in multidrug-resistant K562/A02 cells.

The anti-cancer activities of curcumin (CUR), a polyphenol derived from the plant Curcuma longa, has been extensively studied. In the present study, we found that CUR displayed anti-multidrug-resistant (MDR) activity in K562/A02 cells. A short-time treatment with CUR sufficiently and equally induced DNA damage, decreased cell viability, and triggered apoptosis in parent K562 and MDR K562/A02 cells. The short-time treatment with CUR also caused decrease of pro-caspase 3 in both cell lines and decrease of pro-caspase 9, increase of PARP cleavage and the ratio of Bax/Bcl-xL in MDR K562/A02 cells. Further experiment revealed that CUR was capable of down-regulating P-glycoprotein in MDR K562/A02 cells. Moreover, we observed that Cu(2+) enhanced CUR-mediated apoptosis which was blocked by antioxidants N-acetyl-cysteine and catalase. In summary, the short-time treatment with CUR sufficiently induced DNA damage, decreased cell viability and triggered apoptosis in MDR K562/A02 cells and Cu(2+) enhanced CUR-mediated apoptosis which due to reactive oxygen species generation.