Golden Spice for The Fight; Unearthing Curcumin's Anticancer Secrets

Curcumin is a bright yellow chemical produced by plants of the Curcuma longa species. It is the principal curcuminoid of turmeric (Curcuma longa), a member of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. Curcumin incorporates a seven-carbon linker and three major functional groups: an α, β- unsaturated β- diketone moiety and an aromatic O- methoxy - phenolic group. Curcumin has several drawbacks that limit its potential as a therapeutic agent. One of the most common approaches to overcoming these limitations is to design and synthesis some curcumin analogues which contain some heterocyclic moiety. Our aim was to develop novel curcumin derivatives that can provide anticancer activity. In-silico design of novel analogues was carried out using ACD labs chemsketch 12.0. Molinspiration software was used to analyse 'Lipinski rule of 5' and drug likeness properties. Biological activity was predicted by PASS software. ADMET prediction was carried using SWISS ADME software. Preliminary docking study was carried out using PyRx software. The results were compared with standard anticancer drug 5-flurouracil. The results of present project work showed that the novel derivatives of curcumin have comparable anticancer effect with that of standard anticancer drug 5-flurouracil. This will lead to the development of promising lead compounds as anticancer agent and encourage further optimisation to develop potent anticancer drug.