Abstract :
Curcumin, from the spice turmeric, has many chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic benefits and has shown promise as an adjuvant treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colorectal cancer (CRC). In this paper we focused on the effect of curcumin upon glycolytic enzymes because in cancer cells glycolysis appears to be the major source of energy. The effects of curcumin upon several glycolytic enzymes were studied with the aim to further define curcumin’s potential for chemoprevention of CRC in IBD patients, whom are known to be at high risk for the development of CRC. We measured rabbit muscle 1-phosphofructokinase (PFK-1), aldolase, enolase, pyruvate kinase (PK), and lactose dehydrogenase (LDH) enzyme activities in the presence of curcumin and compared their enzyme I50 values. We also compared constant concentrations of curcumin with varying enzyme concentrations to determine the enzymes reversibility. We showed reversible inhibition of several glycolytic enzymes with curcumin. We postulate that curcumin may be able to prevent colon cells from acquiring a glycolytic phenotype, prevent cancer cell proliferation through the inhibition of glycolysis, and thereby, prevent the onset of colon carcinogenesis in IBD patients.
