Testicular cancer is the most common
cancer among young men of reproductive age.
Bleomycin is a frequently used
drug for the treatment of several
malignancies and is part of the
chemotherapy protocols used for
testicular cancer; however, side-effects are common.
Bleomycin causes an increase in oxidative stress which has been shown to induce apoptosis in
cancer cells.
Curcumin (
diferuloylmethane), an active component of the spice turmeric, has been demonstrated to induce apoptosis in a number of
malignancies. However, to date no study has been carried out to elucidate its anticancer activity and interaction with
bleomycin in
testicular cancer cells. In this study, we investigated and compared the effects of
curcumin,
bleomycin and
hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on apoptotic signaling pathways.
Curcumin (20 µM),
bleomycin (400 µg/ml) and H2O2 (400 µM) incubation for 24 h decreased the viability of NTera-2 cells, and increased
caspase-3, -8 and -9 activities, Bax and cytoplasmic
cytochrome c levels and decreased Bcl-2 levels. The concurrent use of
curcumin with
bleomycin induced
caspase-3, -8 and -9 activities to a greater extent in NTera-2 cells than the use of each
drug alone. Our observations suggest that the effects of
curcumin and
bleomycin on apoptotic signaling pathways are synergistic. Therefore, we propose to use
curcumin together with
bleomycin to decrease its therapeutic dose and, therefore, its side-effects.