How Curry Spice Helps Fight Cancer

Scientists showed that curcumin, the main ingredient of the Indian herb turmeric, restores key immune cells that fight off cancer.

The immune system of patients with advanced cancer is significantly weakened, mostly because the main cells that fight off tumors either cannot proliferate anymore or have died off. Curcumin was previously shown to have anti-tumor activity but its effects on the immune system were unknown - until now.

Gaurisankar Sa and colleagues showed that curcumin boosts the immune system of tumor-bearing mice by restoring key immune cells called CD4 and CD8 T cells. The scientists also showed that curcumin increases the production of proteins that cause immune cells to proliferate and reduces the production of proteins that destroy immune cells.

Article: "Curcumin Prevents Tumor-Induced T Cell Apoptosis through Stat-5a-mediated Bcl-2 Induction" by Sankar Bhattacharyya, Debaprasad Mandal, Baisakhi Saha, Gouri Sankar Sen, Tanya Das, and Gaurisankar Sa -American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology