AUTHOR=Veselá Kateřina , Kejík Zdeněk , Abramenko Nikita , Kaplánek Robert , Jakubek Milan , Petrlova Jitka TITLE=Investigating antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties of synthetic curcuminoids JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine VOLUME=11 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2024.1478122 DOI=10.3389/fmed.2024.1478122 ISSN=2296-858X ABSTRACT=

The concept of intratumoral microbiota is gaining attention in current research. Tumor-associated microbiota can activate oncogenic signaling pathways such as NF-κB, thereby promoting tumor development and progression. Numerous studies have demonstrated that curcumin and its analogs possess strong antitumor effects by targeting the NF-κB signaling pathway, along with potent antibacterial properties. In this study, we tested the antibacterial activity of two curcuminoids, Py-cPen and V-cPen, against the Gram-negative bacterial strains Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli and the Gram-positive bacterial strain Streptococcus aureus using in vitro assays and fluorescent microscopy. We observed that both Py-cPen and V-cPen reduced NF-κB activation upon lipopolysacharide (LPS) challenge in cell assays. In addition, our findings indicate that Py-cPen and V-cPen interact with LPS, as demonstrated by transmission electron microscopy and confirmed using in silico analyses, thereby modulating LPS activity. Overall, our data indicate that Py-cPen and V-cPen exhibit strong antibacterial and antiinflammatory properties, suggesting their potential as candidates for new multitarget therapeutic strategies.