Mechanism of Curcumin in Inhibiting Proliferation of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Network Pharmacology and Cellular Experimental Study
Yating He, Yaqi Liao, Shizhen Fang, Ling Zhu, Zhang Zhao, Tingting Chen, Zhimin Zhang
TL;DR
This study explores how curcumin inhibits head and neck cancer growth using network analysis and lab experiments, identifying key molecular targets.
Contribution
The study integrates network pharmacology and experimental validation to reveal curcumin's antitumor mechanism in HNSCC via the EGFR/STAT3 pathway.
Findings
Curcumin inhibits cancer cell viability, invasion, and migration while promoting apoptosis in HNSCC cell lines.
Curcumin downregulates EGFR/STAT3 expression at both mRNA and protein levels.
RNA-seq analysis confirms suppression of the STAT pathway as a key anticancer mechanism.
Abstract
Despite advances in cancer therapy, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remains a challenging malignancy with limited treatment options, prompting this investigation into curcumin′s antitumor mechanisms through integrated network pharmacology, molecular docking, and in vitro experiments. Our comprehensive analysis identified 34 potential targets, with AKT1, EGFR, and STAT3 emerging as core targets primarily involved in regulating proliferation, apoptosis, and migration via the EGFR/STAT3 pathway. Experimental validation demonstrated curcumin′s dose‐dependent inhibition of viability, invasion, and migration in FaDu and CAL 27 cells, while promoting apoptosis and downregulating EGFR/STAT3 expression at both mRNA and protein levels—effects that were synergistically enhanced when combined with AG490 inhibitor. RNA‐seq analysis further confirmed STAT pathway suppression as a key…
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
Click any figure to enlarge with its caption.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
Figure 11
Figure 12
Figure 13
Figure 14
Figure 15
Figure 16
Figure 17
Figure 18
Figure 19
Figure 20
Figure 21
Figure 22
Figure 23
Figure 24
Figure 25
Figure 26
Figure 27
Figure 28
Figure 29
Figure 30
Figure 31
Figure 32
Figure 33
Figure 34
Figure 35
Figure 36
Figure 37
Figure 38
Figure 39
Figure 40
Figure 41Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsCurcumin's Biomedical Applications · Biological Research and Disease Studies · Retinoids in leukemia and cellular processes