MicroRNA: A novel target of curcumin in cancer therapy

Curcumin is known as a natural dietary polyphenol which is extracted from Curcuma longa L. It has been shown that curcumin has a variety of pharmacological effects such as antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and anti-microbial activities. Anti-cancer effects of curcumin are due to targeting of a wide range of cellular and molecular pathways involved in cancer pathogenesis including NF-kB, MAPK, PTEN, P53, and microRNAs (miRNA) network. Multiple lines of evidence have indicated that curcumin exerts its therapeutic effects via regulating miRNA expression (e.g., miR-1, miR-7, miR-9, miR-34a, miR-181, miR-21, and miR-19) which could lead to the regulation of underlying cellular and molecular pathways involved in cancer pathogenesis. Exosomes are one of the important classes of biological vehicles which could be released from various types of cells such as cancer cells and stem cells and could change the behavior of recipient cells. It has been shown that treatment of cancer cells with different dose of curcumin leads to the release of exosomes containing curcumin. These exosomes could induce anti-cancer properties in recipient cells and reduce tumor growth. Hence, exosomes containing curcumin could be applied as powerful tools for cancer treatment. Here, we highlighted various miRNAs which could be affected by curcumin in various types of cancer. Moreover, we highlight exosomes containing curcumin as suitable therapeutic tools in cancer therapy.