University of California San Diego School of Medicine scientists, in collaboration with colleagues at Peking University and Zhejiang University, report that curcumin, a natural occurring chemical compound found in the spice turmeric, binds to the kinase enzyme dual-specificity tyrosine-regulated kinase 2 (DYRK2) at the atomic level. This previously unreported biochemical interaction of curcumin, discovered using x-ray crystallography and kinase-inhibitor specificity profiling, leads to inhibition of DYRK2 that impairs cell proliferation and reduces cancer burden. The study (“ Ancient drug curcumin impedes 26S proteasome activity by direct inhibition of dual-specificity tyrosine-regulated kinase 2 ”) is published in PNAS. “Curcumin, the active ingredient in Curcuma longa , has been in medicinal use since ancient times. However, the therapeutic targets and signaling cascades modulated by curcumin have been enigmatic despite extensive research. Here we identify dual-specificity tyrosine-regulated kinase 2 (DYRK2), a positive regulator of the 26S proteasome, as a direct target of ...
Original Article: Curcumin Shown to Inhibit DYRK2 and Reduce Cancer Burden