A Comparison of Curcumin and Nanocurcumin Effect on the expression of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) in HeLa cell line

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women. In recent years, attention has increased to natural products such as curcumin with anti-cancer potential as a therapeutic supplement. However, due to its poor solubility, its clinical use is limited. In this regard, in this study, to improve clinical parameters, the effects of nanocurcumin on the angiogenesis inhibition of cervical cancer were investigated and compared with free curcumin.

MTT method was used to evaluate the proliferation of the HeLa cell line with free curcumin and nanocurcumin at different doses and time intervals and the rate of apoptosis was assessed by flow cytometry. Then, the expression of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) gene in HeLa cells was measured by Real-Time PCR and Western blotting, respectively.

According to IC50 for 48 hours in the HeLa cell line, which was 15 μM/ml and 50 μM/ml for nanocurcumin and free curcumin, respectively, the nanocurcumin showed a greater lethal effect. VEGF-A gene expression (p <0.0001) and protein level (p <0.01) were significantly lower following nano-curcumin treatment than free curcumin.

Nanocarrier increased the solubility and further inhibited the proliferation of cervical cancer HeLa cells and was three times more effective than curcumin in inhibiting angiogenesis at the same concentration. Therefore, nanocurcumin can be a good option for drug supplementation along with routine cervical cancer treatment.