Curcumin inhibits vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression on a murine triple-negative breast cancer

VEGF is the most important angiogenic factor with proven significance in breast cancer. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most malignant type of breast cancer with high vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression. Therefore, VEGF can be one of the targets to treat TNBC. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Curcumin on VEGF expression in triple-negative breast cancer using 4T1 cell line. Each concentration of Curcumin was added in triplicate into a 96-well plate containing the 4T1 cells. Cells without treatment served as a control group. The number of viable cells after 24 hrs incubation at 37°C and 5% CO2 was determined by the 3-(4,5-dimethyl- thiazol-2-yl) -2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Tissue Total RNA Mini kit was used to extract the RNA. The expression of VEGF was studied by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Lower doses of Curcumin enhanced the viability of the cultured cells, MTT assay. However, higher doses of Curcumin decreased the viability of 4T1 cells by 50% or more. Curcumin significantly inhibits the viability of 4T1 breast cancer cells with an IC50 value of 34,34 µg/mL. The VEGF mRNA expression was significantly lowered upon curcumin treatment. It can be concluded that Curcumin has a biphasic activity on 4T1 TNBS cell line and inhibit VEGF expression in triple-negative breast cancer that Curcumin has the potential to be developed as a triple-negative breast cancer treatment.