curcumin inhibits growth of saccharomyces cerevisiae through iron

41
Minear, S., et al 1 Curcumin inhibits growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae 1 through iron chelation 2 3 4 Steven Minear 1,3† , Allyson F. O'Donnell 1,4† , Anna Ballew 1,5 , Guri Giaever 2,6 , 5 Corey Nislow 2,7 , Tim Stearns 1, 2 and Martha S. Cyert 1 * 6 7 8 1 Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5020, USA. 9 10 2 Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 11 94304, USA. 12 13 14 Current Addresses: 15 16 3 Surgery Department, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, 17 USA. 18 19 4 Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley, 20 Berkeley, CA 94720-3202, USA. 21 22 5 School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 23 USA. 24 25 6 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Molecular Genetics, Donnelly 26 Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada. 27 28 7 Banting and Best Department of Medical Research and Donnelly Center, 29 University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada 30 31 These authors contributed equally to this work. 32 33 *Corresponding author - Martha S. Cyert 34 371 Serra Mall 35 Department of Biology 36 Stanford University 37 Stanford, CA 94305-5020 38 Phone: 650 723-9970 39 Fax: 650 724-9945 40 Email: [email protected] 41 42 43 Current Word Count – 4722 (26, 019 characters without spaces) 44 45 Copyright © 2011, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved. Eukaryotic Cell doi:10.1128/EC.05163-11 EC Accepts, published online ahead of print on 9 September 2011

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Page 1: Curcumin inhibits growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae through iron

Minear, S., et al

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Curcumin inhibits growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae 1 through iron chelation 2 3 4 Steven Minear1,3†, Allyson F. O'Donnell1,4†, Anna Ballew1,5, Guri Giaever2,6, 5 Corey Nislow2,7, Tim Stearns1, 2 and Martha S. Cyert1* 6 7 8 1Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5020, USA. 9 10 2Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 11 94304, USA. 12 13 14 Current Addresses: 15 16 3Surgery Department, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, 17 USA. 18 19 4Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley, 20 Berkeley, CA 94720-3202, USA. 21 22 5School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 23 USA. 24 25 6Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Molecular Genetics, Donnelly 26 Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada. 27 28 7Banting and Best Department of Medical Research and Donnelly Center, 29 University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada 30 31 †These authors contributed equally to this work. 32 33 *Corresponding author - Martha S. Cyert 34

371 Serra Mall 35 Department of Biology 36 Stanford University 37 Stanford, CA 94305-5020 38 Phone: 650 723-9970 39 Fax: 650 724-9945 40 Email: [email protected] 41

42 43 Current Word Count – 4722 (26, 019 characters without spaces) 44

45

Copyright © 2011, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.Eukaryotic Cell doi:10.1128/EC.05163-11 EC Accepts, published online ahead of print on 9 September 2011

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Abstract (limit 250 words) 46 47 Curcumin, a polyphenol derived from turmeric, is an ancient therapeutic, used in 48

India for centuries to treat a wide array of ailments. Interest in curcumin has 49

increased recently, with on-going clinical trials exploring curcumin as an anti-50

cancer therapy and as a protectant against neurodegenerative diseases. In vitro, 51

curcumin chelates metal ions. However, curcumin’s mechanism of action on 52

mammalian cells remains unclear, although diverse physiological effects have 53

been documented for this compound. These studies use yeast as a model 54

eukaryotic system to dissect the biological activity of curcumin. We find that yeast 55

mutants deleted for genes required for iron and copper homeostasis are hyper-56

sensitive to curcumin and that iron supplementation rescues this sensitivity. 57

Curcumin penetrates yeast cells, concentrates in the ER-membranes, and 58

reduces the intracellular iron pool. Curcumin-treated, iron-starved cultures are 59

enriched in unbudded cells, suggesting that the G1 phase of the cell cycle is 60

lengthened. A delay in cell cycle progression could, in part, explain the anti-61

tumorigenic properties associated with curcumin. We also demonstrate that 62

curcumin causes a growth lag in cultured human cells that is remediated by 63

addition of exogenous iron. These findings suggest that curcumin-induced iron 64

starvation is conserved from yeast to humans and underlies its medicinal 65

properties. 66

67 Keywords 68 69 Curcumin, metal ion homeostasis, iron chelation 70 71

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Introduction 72

Curcumin is the major chemical component of turmeric, a dietary spice made 73

from the root of the Curcuma longa Linn plant and used extensively in traditional 74

Indian medicine (38). Curcumin is a potent bioactive compound that is used to 75

treat cancer (5, 35), atherosclerosis (33), and neurodegenerative diseases such 76

as Alzheimer’s (26, 45) and Parkinson’s (44) as well as to promote wound 77

healing (15, 36). Curcumin is particularly appealing as a therapeutic agent 78

because of its extremely low toxicity. Many biological activities have been 79

ascribed to curcumin. For example, curcumin suppresses inflammatory 80

responses in cultured cells and in animals and also exhibits anti-oxidant 81

properties. Furthermore, curcumin’s ability to inhibit tumorogenesis, and 82

proliferation of a wide variety of cancerous cells, has been well documented. 83

Curcumin is a polyphenol and complexes readily with a number of different metal 84

ions. In aqueous solutions of neutral pH, curcumin is an effective chelator of 85

Fe(III) (2). Curcumin is also lipophilic, and readily crosses membranes (19) and 86

therefore may also chelate metal ions intracellularly. How these chemical 87

properties contribute to curcumin’s biological activities, however, is not 88

understood. 89

90

Identifying relevant in vivo targets of small molecules is technically 91

challenging. Recently, several genetic and genomic approaches have been 92

developed that use the simple eukaryote, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or budding 93

yeast, to study the mechanism of drug action (17, 27, 31). One such method, 94

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termed homozygous profiling, uses a comprehensive collection of 4,700 95

homozygous diploid deletion yeast strains, each bearing a deletion of a single 96

non-essential gene (39), to examine growth in the presence of a bioactive 97

compound (12). Mutant strains that display increased sensitivity to the compound 98

are identified, and the identity of the genes deleted in these hypersensitive 99

strains is used to infer the biological effects of the compound. 100

101

We carried out such a screen to identify yeast mutants whose growth is 102

strongly inhibited by curcumin. The results of this study indicate that curcumin 103

antagonizes yeast growth by chelating iron. Furthermore, iron supplementation 104

alleviates the growth inhibitory effect of curcumin on both yeast and cultured 105

human cells, suggesting a common mechanism. Previous studies established 106

that curcumin treatment causes mouse cells and tissues to display iron depletion 107

characteristics (20). The findings presented here also indicate that curcumin 108

chelates iron in vivo and suggest that iron chelation may underlie many of 109

curcumin’s therapeutic activities. 110

111

112

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Materials and Methods 113 114 Strains, plasmids and growth conditions 115 116 Yeast growth medium and basic methods were as described in (34). Curcumin, 117

bathopenanthrolinebisulfonic acid (BPS), bathocuprine disulphonate (BCS), 118

ferrous sulfate (Fe2SO4), copper chloride (CuCl2) and ferric chloride (FeCl3) were 119

from Sigma-Aldrich, Inc. (St. Louis, MO). BY4743 (MATa/α his3Δ1/his3Δ1 120

leu2Δ0/leu2Δ0 LYS2/lys2Δ0 met15Δ0/MET15 ura3Δ0/ura3Δ0) or BY4741 (MATa 121

his3Δ1 leu2Δ0 LYS2 met15Δ0 ura3Δ0) were used as the wild-type strains. The 122

homozygous diploid deletion collection, based on BY4743, was purchased from 123

Open Biosystems (Huntsville, AL). Cells used in growth analysis on plates were 124

grown to saturation and then plated in 5-fold serial dilutions with a starting 125

concentration of approximately 1.0x107 cells. 126

Pooled competitive growth assays 127

The experimental design is detailed in (11). In brief, yeast strains from the 128

homozygous deletion collection were pooled as described (12, 32) and stored at 129

-80°C. The pooled cells were then thawed and diluted in YPD to an optical 130

density (OD) of 0.0625 at 600 nm. This dilution ensures that 300 individual cells 131

from each deletion strain are represented at the onset of the experiment. 150 μM 132

curcumin was added to the pooled cells and cells were grown for five generations 133

(to OD600 = 2.0) in a Tecan GENios microtiter plate reader (Tecan, Durham, NC). 134

Cells were harvested and genomic DNA extracted, used as a template in PCR-135

amplification of ‘UPTAG’ and ‘DOWNTAG’ sequences that mark each gene 136

deletion. The fluorescently-tagged PCR products were hybridized to TAG3 137

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microarrays from Affymetrix (Santa Clara, CA) (11) and fluorescence intensity of 138

each pair of tags was determined. Fitness-defect scores were calculated for each 139

strain in the pool. These scores are based on a tag-specific algorithm that takes 140

into account the intensities of each tag on the experimental array and the 141

corresponding intensities on a set of control arrays, preformed using pooled-cells 142

grown without the compound of interest (control set) (12). Tag intensities were 143

log transformed, mean normalized, and the intensities for replicates averaged 144

into a single value. A mean and standard deviation were calculated for both the 145

UPTAG and DOWNTAG hybridizations. Z-scores for the UPTAG and 146

DOWNTAG for each strain were calculated by subtracting the control average 147

intensity from the experimental (curcumin treated) average intensity and dividing 148

by the standard deviation of the control-set intensities. This generates a z-score 149

value for both the UPTAG and DOWNTAG sequences which are then averaged 150

into a single fitness-defect score for the strain. 151

β-galactosidase assays 152

BY4741 cells were transformed by the lithium acetate method with a plasmid 153

bearing the PrFET3-lacZ reporter (provided by Caroline Philpott, NIDDK National 154

Institutes of Health), or a plasmid containing the PrFRE2-lacZ reporter (provided by 155

Dennis Winge, University of Utah) (28). Cells were then grown in synthetic 156

complete medium (lacking the required amino acid for plasmid selection) made 157

with YNB lacking iron and copper from BIO101 (Solon, OH) to OD600= 1.0. 158

Cultures where diluted to OD600= 0.01 into fresh low iron/copper synthetic 159

complete medium with additions of curcumin or BPS, in the presence or absence 160

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of Fe2SO4, and grown an additional 12 h. Cells were harvested and proteins 161

extracted for use in β-galactosidase activities as described in (4). The β-162

galactosidase activity reported is the maximum rate of OD415 163

change/minute/amount of protein. Two independent transformants were assayed 164

in triplicate (for a minimum of six replicates) for each condition and error bars 165

represent the standard deviation of the mean. 166

Inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) 167

ICP-AES was performed as described in (10). In brief, wild-type (BY4743) cells 168

were grown from OD600= 0.5 to saturation in YPD with no additions or with 169

addition of 100 μM BPS, 500 μM BCS, 25 μM curcumin, or 50 μM curcumin. 170

Cells were then harvested by filtration, washed with water, resuspended in 500 μl 171

of 30% nitric acid and digested overnight at 65°C. Cell digests were centrifuged 172

at 12,000 x g for 10 minutes and the supernatants were transferred to new tubes 173

and used in ICP-AES analysis on a Varian Vista ICP-AES (Varian Inc, Palo Alto, 174

CA, USA). Data analysis was performed as indicated in (10) for the following 175

elements: Ca, Co, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, S, and Zn. All element 176

measurements were corrected for differences in cell mass. This correction 177

assumes that treated and untreated cells differ only in cell mass which appears 178

to be the case as most elements assessed did not change significantly between 179

experimental and control cells (data not shown). The mean iron and copper 180

content for 5 experimental replicates is presented as a percentage relative to the 181

untreated (YPD) control cells. Error bars represent the standard error of the 182

mean. 183

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Yeast growth curves, cell morphology, and viability analysis 184

Wild-type (BY4743) cells were grown to saturation in YPD, washed and 185

inoculated at OD600=0.5 into YPD with no additives or containing 80 μM BPS, 50 186

μM curcumin, or 100 μM curcumin +/- 50 μM Fe2SO4. Three independent 187

cultures were monitored for each condition and cells were grown in a Tecan 188

GENios plate reader with orbital shaking at room temperature (between 23-27°C) 189

with OD600 readings taken every 30 min. A path-length correction factor was then 190

applied to Tecan GENios OD600 readings, and these data are reported. For bud-191

type assessments, cells were harvested after 7 h of growth, fixed in 3.7% 192

formaldehyde and bud morphology scored. The morphology of 200 cells was 193

assessed for each of three replicate cultures (for a total ‘n’ of 600 cells in 3 194

replicates). Data presented are the mean of these values, and the error bars 195

represent the standard deviation of the mean. 196

197

In addition to cell morphology, cells used in the growth curve analysis were 198

scored for viability after 7 hours of incubation with the additives indicated. This 199

analysis was performed to determine if the growth lag observed for certain 200

additions was due to cell death. 20 μl of each culture was harvested by 201

centrifugation, resuspended in 3.7% methylene blue in 100 mM phosphate 202

buffered saline (adjusted to pH 7), and scored for viability. No less than 100 cells 203

were scored per culture and cells staining dark blue were considered 204

metabolically inactive and therefore inviable. As a control in this experiment, an 205

additional sample was taken from the YPD grown cultures and heat-treated for 206

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10 min. at 70°C to kill all cells. As expected, 100% of cultures treated this way 207

stained dark blue and were unable to form colonies. Viability was further 208

confirmed for all cultures by assessing colony-forming units on YPD after 7 h of 209

incubation with the additives indicated. 210

211

212

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Results and Discussion 213 214 215 Yeast mutants with defects in iron and copper homeostasis are 216

hypersensitive to curcumin 217

218

Curcumin was tested at a range of concentrations, and found to inhibit growth of 219

wild-type yeast in a dose-dependent manner (Figure 1A). To determine the 220

mechanism by which growth was inhibited, we sought to identify mutant yeast 221

strains with increased sensitivity to curcumin. First a competitive growth assay 222

was used (11), in which a genomic collection of ~4,700 homozygous diploid 223

deletion strains (39) was grown in a single culture using medium that contained 224

curcumin. After 5 generations of growth, the relative abundance of each strain in 225

the pool was assessed by hybridization to a DNA microarray that contained 226

sequence identifiers unique to each deletion strain (see Methods). Mutants 227

whose growth is inhibited by curcumin are underrepresented in this pool. 228

Analysis of these data identified 42 mutant strains that displayed a significant 229

fitness defect during growth in curcumin-containing media (Table S1). Growth of 230

the 30 most sensitive strains was then tested individually on solid medium 231

containing 150 μM curcumin (Figure 1B and Table S1), however pho86Δ, ypk1Δ 232

and vma5Δ were excluded because they grew poorly on YPD alone. Of the 233

strains tested, 18 were hypersensitive to 150 μM curcumin in the solid-medium 234

growth assay and are hereafter referred to as curcumin hypersensitive strains 235

(Figure 1B). The degree of hypersensitivity in the initial liquid growth assay did 236

not strongly correlate with the degree of growth inhibition observed on solid 237

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medium containing curcumin. This could be due to the difference between liquid 238

and solid media growth, competitive versus clonal growth, and/or due to the 239

length of exposure to curcumin: In the competitive growth assay, cells were 240

exposed to curcumin for only 5 generations, compared to prolonged curcumin 241

exposure for 2-4 days in the solid medium growth assay (i.e. ~20 generations of 242

growth are required to form a colony). The combination of both assays allowed 243

for a more accurate assessment of hypersensitivity. 244

245

Next, the functions of genes deleted in the curcumin hypersensitive strains 246

were analyzed. The 18 mutant strains identified only 17 genes as two strains, 247

ccc2Δ and ydr269cΔ, delete overlapping open reading frames, and thus both 248

compromise Ccc2 function. Remarkably, 8 out of 17 of the genes identified 249

encode products that function in the transport and homeostasis of iron and 250

copper ions (Table 1). Specifically, genes whose products mediate iron transport 251

(FTR1 and FET3) as well as regulation of gene expression under iron limitation 252

conditions (AFT1) were identified (8, 40). Genes that encode proteins required 253

for copper transport (CTR1) and regulation of gene expression during copper 254

limitation (MAC1) were also identified (6, 23). Interestingly, these processes are 255

coupled in vivo (7), as an essential component of high affinity iron uptake, Fet3p, 256

is a copper-dependent ferro-oxidoreductase, and deletions of genes whose 257

products are required for incorporation of copper ion into Fet3 (CCC2, ATX1, 258

GEF1) are sensitive to curcumin (13, 18, 42). Other genes identified include 259

those that disrupt vacuolar acidification (VMA3, VMA13, VMA21), a process 260

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required for intracellular iron utilization (9, 37). In addition, several mutants that 261

disrupt the lipid composition of membranes, and thus have wide-ranging defects 262

in membrane function and trafficking are hypersensitive to curcumin (SAC1, 263

ERG3, LEM3). Overall, these findings suggest that strains with defects in iron 264

and/or copper homeostasis are hypersensitive to curcumin. 265

266

Differential rescue of curcumin hypersensitivity by copper and iron 267

268

To further define the mechanism by which curcumin inhibits yeast growth, we 269

tested the ability of curcumin-hypersensitive deletion strains to grow when iron or 270

copper supplements were added to the growth medium. Importantly, addition of 271

iron or copper to YPD medium at the concentrations employed had no effect on 272

cell growth in the absence of curcumin (data not shown). Addition of 50 μM iron 273

significantly improved the growth of all curcumin-sensitive strains, whereas 274

addition of a 10-fold higher amount of copper (500 μM) was able to rescue 275

growth of only a small subset of strains (fet3Δ, gef1Δ, ccc2Δ, atx1Δ and mac1Δ), 276

(Figure 1B). 277

278

We next compared the curcumin sensitivity profile to that of BPS, a known iron 279

chelator, and BCS, a known copper chelator. The 100 μM curcumin sensitivity 280

profile was strikingly similar to 80 μM BPS-sensitivity profile (Figure 1C), with 281

erg3Δ as the single exceptor showing sensitivity to curcumin and not BPS. 282

Similar experiments comparing growth on 100 μM curcumin to growth on as 283

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much as 500 μM BCS identified only three of the candidates, vma21Δ, vma13Δ 284

and cup5Δ, as BCS sensitive (data not shown). Taken together these 285

observations suggest that curcumin inhibits yeast growth primarily through 286

limiting iron availability. 287

288

Competitive growth assays similar to the one described here for curcumin 289

have been performed using 75-100 μM BPS (21). This BPS concentration range 290

results in a similar yeast sensitivity profile to that observed for 150 μM curcumin 291

(Figure 1C and data not shown), which was the curcumin concentration 292

employed in our competitive growth assays. Strikingly, 18 of 42 of our curcumin 293

sensitive candidates were also identified in the BPS-sensitivity screen (21). While 294

the curcumin-hypersenstive strains identified in this study were well-represented 295

in the BPS hypersensitivity profile, the BPS competitive growth assays described 296

by Jo et al., (21) identified approximately three-fold more sensitive strains. This 297

difference could be due to the fact that cells were exposed to BPS for 15 298

generations, as opposed to the 5 generations used in the curcumin screen. 299

Furthermore, a less stringent fitness cutoff was used when assigning BPS-300

sensitive strains. Taken together these data further support the interpretation that 301

curcumin-mediated growth inhibition is due to iron starvation. 302

303

304

305

306

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Curcumin accumulates in yeast endoplasmic-reticulum membranes 307

308

Chelators can deplete the exogenous pool of metal ions from the growth 309

medium, enter cells and deplete the intracellular reserves of metal ions, or act 310

both intra and extracellularly to alter metal ion pools. Curcumin is able to bind 311

iron in solution, demonstrating that it is an effective extracellular iron chelator (2). 312

To determine if curcumin can also traverse the yeast cell wall and plasma 313

membrane to act intracellularly, we exploited the natural fluorescent properties of 314

curcuminoids. Curcumin auto-fluorescence can be excited at ~455 nm and emits 315

at approximately 540 nm (19, 24). We treated cells containing an HDEL-Ds-Red 316

marker, which uniformly stains both cortical and peri-nuclear ER-membranes 317

(16), with either DMSO or 150 μM curcumin for 5 hours and visualized curcumin 318

fluorescence using a filter set for GFP that overlaps with the curcumin excitation 319

and emission wavelengths (Figure 2). Curcumin fluorescence co-localized with 320

the HDEL-Ds-Red marker in 69% of cells (n=103) examined, indicating that 321

curcumin not only enters yeast cells but also accumulates within the ER-322

membrane (Figure 2A). While there is clear co-localization of curcumin with the 323

ER-membrane, curcumin may also localize to additional intracellular membranes 324

accounting for the background of curcumin fluorescence that does not co-localize 325

with the ER HDEL marker (Figure 2A). These observations are consistent with 326

demonstrations of curcumin accumulation in intracellular membranes of 327

mammalian cells, including the ER (19, 24). These findings further suggest that 328

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curcumin may impact intracellular iron pools in addition to chelation of 329

extracellular iron. 330

To test whether addition of iron to the growth medium suppresses curcumin 331

sensitivity by preventing curcumin uptake into cells, cells grown in curcumin and 332

iron were examined by fluorescence microscopy. Curcumin also co-localized with 333

the ER-membrane in iron-treated cells, indicating that it still enters cells under 334

conditions of iron supplementation (Figure 2B). Curcumin fluorescence was 335

reduced in iron-treated cells. However, because iron decreases the fluorescence 336

intensity of curcumin-containing solutions in a dose-dependent manner (data not 337

shown), fluorescence per se cannot be used to compare intracellular curcumin 338

concentrations under these two conditions. Nonetheless, our findings indicate 339

that curcumin permeates yeast cells grown in the presence or absence of 340

supplemental iron, and are consistent with the hypothesis that curcumin acts 341

intracellularly to chelate iron and induce iron starvation. 342

343

Curcumin treatment results in reduced intracellular iron 344

345

We tested the effect of curcumin on cellular iron levels directly using inductively-346

coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Wild-type cells were 347

treated with curcumin, BPS, or BCS (see Materials and Methods). The majority of 348

elements assessed this way did not change as a result of these treatments (data 349

not shown). As expected, the iron content of cells treated with 100 μM BPS was 350

dramatically reduced (80% less iron compared to cells grown in YPD). Curcumin 351

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also significantly decreased cellular iron levels, with cells grown in the presence 352

of 25 μM and 50 μM curcumin containing 20-40% less iron, respectively, versus 353

cells grown in YPD (Figure 3A). Treatment with BCS reduced cellular-copper 354

content by 90% of that of cells grown in YPD, however, consistent with our earlier 355

findings, curcumin-treatment did not significantly alter copper levels in 356

comparison to YPD-grown cells (Figure 3A). 357

358

The physiological relevance of this cellular iron depletion was next examined 359

by measuring the transcriptional response induced by curcumin. Under 360

conditions of iron starvation, the Aft1 transcription factor up-regulates genes 361

responsible for high-affinity iron transport (41). Two targets of Aft1-transcription 362

regulation are FET3, the high affinity iron transporter, and FRE2, a gene 363

encoding an iron reductase that functions as the rate limiting step in high-affinity 364

iron import (1, 43). Transcription of FET3 can also be induced by Mac1p, a 365

transcription factor that activates gene expression in response to copper 366

starvation (14); however, regulation of FRE2 is independent of copper starvation 367

(28). Following 50 μM curcumin treatment, FET3 and FRE2 expression increased 368

3-fold and 6-fold, respectively (Figures 3B and 3C). Because the curcumin-369

mediated induction of FRE2 and FET3 are similar, the most parsimonious 370

explanation is that curcumin predominantly induces an iron-starvation response. 371

These data suggest that growth of yeast in the presence of curcumin leads to a 372

decrease in available iron and, as a result, induces the iron-starvation 373

transcriptional response. 374

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375

Curcumin slows yeast cell cycle progression with no accompanying 376

decrease in cell viability 377

378

Next, we examined the kinetics of curcumin-induced yeast cell growth inhibition. 379

Yeast cells were grown to mid-log phase and treated with curcumin or BPS, in 380

the presence or absence of additional iron, and growth rate (i.e. doubling time) 381

monitored. As expected, addition of curcumin or BPS slowed yeast growth rate 382

(Figure 4A), with treatments of either 80 μM BPS or 150 μM curcumin increasing 383

doubling time approximately two-fold (Figure 4B). Addition of iron to the BPS- or 384

curcumin-treated cells rescued this growth inhibition, shortening the doubling 385

times to levels similar to those observed for untreated-control cells grown in YPD 386

(Figure 4A and Figure 4B). 387

388

After ~10 hours of treatment with either BPS or curcumin, at which point 389

control cells in YPD had doubled twice, cell viability and cell cycle progression 390

were assessed for the various conditions. Viability of cells grown in the presence 391

of curcumin or BPS was monitored using the vital stain methylene blue (see 392

Materials and Methods) and by assessing colony-forming units of washed cells 393

plated on YPD. 100% cell viability was observed for all cultures (data not shown) 394

at 10 hours post-treatment, consistent with the hypothesis that these compounds 395

cause a delay in cell cycle progression rather than causing cell death. To assess 396

cell cycle progression, we analyzed the morphology of yeast exposed to 397

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curcumin and BPS. In G1 phase cells are unbudded, while cells in S, G2 and M 398

phases of the cell cycle possess buds of characteristic sizes (reviewed in (25)). 399

During mid-log phase growth in YPD, 25% of cells were unbudded and 75% of 400

cells were budded (Figure 4C). Exposure to curcumin or BPS caused an 401

increase in the fraction of unbudded cells, which is commonly observed for 402

treatments that increase the length of G1 (Figure 4C). Curcumin exposure 403

caused a dose-dependent increase in the proportion of unbudded cells to 40% 404

and 45% for 100 μM and 150 μM curcumin, respectively. BPS treatment 405

increased the unbudded fraction to 55%. Taken together, these observations 406

demonstrate that curcumin treatment lengthens the time required to complete the 407

cell cycle, and suggest that the duration of G1 is increased. 408

409

To determine if iron starvation was the cause of this increased doubling 410

time, iron was added to the medium to counter the effect of curcumin on cellular 411

iron levels. Supplementation with 50 μM iron in cultures with 100 μM or 150 μM 412

curcumin or 80 μM BPS completely alleviated the growth inhibition, resulting in 413

restoration of the cell-morphology distributions to those observed for YPD grown 414

cells (Figure 4C). Thus, BPS- or curcumin-induced iron starvation increases 415

yeast doubling time and this is at least in part due to a prolonged G1 phase. 416

Treatment of yeast with other metal chelators has been reported to induce a G1 417

growth arrest that can be rescued by addition of exogenous metal ions to the 418

growth medium (22). 419

420

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Curcumin and human cultured cells 421

422

Exposure of certain human cancer cells to curcumin results in a G1 cell cycle 423

arrest (30) and treatment of human cells with other iron chelators also induces a 424

reversible G1 cell cycle arrest (3, 29). To extend the observations made in yeast, 425

we further explored the effects of curcumin on cell growth by treating human 426

osteosarcoma U2OS cells with curcumin and monitoring cell density relative to a 427

DMSO drug-vector control. The density of control cultures increased 3-fold in 428

24 h, whereas the curcumin-treated culture density did not increase (Figure 5). 429

Addition of iron to the curcumin treated-cells suppressed this growth defect and 430

allowed for population doubling in 24 hours (Figure 5). These data suggest that 431

curcumin’s effects are conserved and it inhibits growth of both yeast and human 432

cells by limiting iron availability. 433

434

An understanding of curcumin's mechanism of action on human cells has 435

been elusive, due in part to the myriad effects associated with curcumin 436

treatment (reviewed in (15)). We used yeast as a model system to explore the 437

mechanism of action of curcumin, and our results strongly suggest that curcumin 438

inhibits eukaryotic cell growth predominantly by chelating intracellular iron. Yeast 439

cells with defects in iron homeostasis are sensitive to curcumin, and curcumin 440

delays cell cycle progression in an iron-dependent manner. These findings 441

suggest that the potent chemotherapeutic effects of curcumin may be explained 442

by iron depletion of cancer cells, which inhibits their proliferation. Iron chelation 443

Page 20: Curcumin inhibits growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae through iron

Minear, S., et al

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may also explain the diverse physiological effects of curcumin. Many cellular 444

enzymes require iron as a co-factor and several signaling pathways are also 445

affected by iron availability. Curcumin penetrates both yeast and mammalian 446

cells and accumulates in intracellular membranes, including the ER. This 447

accumulation in intracellular compartments may selectively limit the availability of 448

essential iron co-factors, impairing specific enzymatic functions and altering 449

cellular signaling to produce the diverse physiological effects associated with 450

curcumin treatment. 451

452

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Figure Legends 453

Figure1. Yeast sensitivity to curcumin can be rescued by iron 454

supplementation and is similar to yeast sensitivity to BPS, an iron chelator. 455

(A) Yeast cells are sensitive to curcumin. Serial dilutions of WT (BY4743) cells 456

were plated on YPD +/- curcumin at the concentration indicated and grown for 2 457

days at 30°C. (B) Deletion of iron and copper homeostasis genes exacerbates 458

yeast sensitivity to curcumin. WT (BY4743) and isogenic homozygous deletion 459

strains (lacking the gene indicated) were plated on YPD +/- 150 μM curcumin, 460

500 μM Cu2SO4, and 50 μM Fe2SO4 and grown for 3 days at 30°C. (C) In parallel 461

to the panels shown in (B) the same cultures were plated on YPD +/- 100 μM 462

curcumin or 80 μM BPS and grown for 3 days at 30°C. 463

464

Figure 2. Curcumin enters yeast cells and accumulates in ER-membranes. 465

(A) Wild-type yeast cells expressing HDEL-DsRed (from strain VHY87 described 466

in (16) were treated with either DMSO (left column) or 150 μM curcumin and 467

visualized by fluorescence microscopy using the GFP filter set for curcumin and 468

the RFP filter set for the HDEL-DsRed. Co-localization of curcumin fluorescence 469

with the ER-marker was observed for 69% of cells examined (n=103). (B) Cells 470

from VHY87 expressing the HDEL-DsRed marker were treated with either 150 471

μM curcumin with or without the addition of 50 μM FeSO4 and visualized as in 472

(A). 473

474

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Figure 3. Curcumin depletes cellular iron and activates iron-starvation 475

induced transcription. (A) WT (BY4743) cells were treated with 100 μM BPS, 476

500 μM BCS or the indicated concentration of curcumin. The mean cellular iron 477

and copper levels relative to YPD untreated cells are shown (as determined by 478

ICP-AES measurement - see Materials and Methods) for a minimum of five 479

experimental replicates. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean. 480

Paired Student’s t-tests were performed between YPD control cultures and each 481

of the treatment conditions. * denotes a p-value of <0.05 and ** denotes a p-482

value of <0.0005. (B) WT (BY4741) cells containing the PrFET3-lacZ reporter were 483

grown in low Fe/Cu medium and treated for 12 hours with 100 μM Fe2SO4, 10 484

μM BPS, or the indicated concentrations of curcumin. Protein extracts were 485

prepared and β-galactosidase activity was determined for a minimum of two 486

transformants, each of which was assayed in triplicate. The mean β-487

galactosidase activity and standard deviation are reported. (C) WT (BY4741) 488

cells containing the PrFRE2-lacZ reporter were grown and assayed for β-489

galactosidase activity as in (B). The mean β-galactosidase activity and standard 490

deviation are reported. 491

492

Figure 4. Curcumin treatment causes a G1 growth arrest in yeast that is 493

alleviated by iron supplementation. (A) WT (BY4743) cells were grown 494

overnight to saturation, inoculated at OD600 = 0.5 into fresh YPD with either no 495

supplement, 100 μM curcumin, 150 μM curcumin, or 80 μM BPS +/- 50 μM 496

Fe2SO4 (indicated as + Fe) and optical density measurements were obtained 497

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every 30 minutes using a Tecan Genios microtiter plate reader. Addition of 498

curcumin to the growth medium results in a shift in absorbance of approximately 499

OD600 = 0.6 for 100 μM curcumin and OD600 = 1.0 for 150 μM curcumin, therefore 500

growth below these densities cannot be measured accurately for this 501

concentration of drug. The growth curves presented are the average of 502

measurements for three independent cultures. (B) The cell doubling time during 503

logarithmic growth was determined for the cultures used in (A). Values presented 504

are the average of the doubling time determined for three independent cultures 505

and error bars represent the standard error of the mean. (C) Cells were grown as 506

in (A) and at 7 hours post-inoculation (during growth curve analysis) samples 507

were taken and bud morphology was scored for three independent cultures with 508

a minimum of 200 cells counted for each. 509

510

Figure 5. Curcumin-mediated inhibition of U2OS cells is alleviated by 511

addition of iron. (A) Three independent cultures of U2OS cells were grown for 512

24 hours in DMEM, 10% FCS with addition of either DMSO (as a vehicle control), 513

100 μM FeCl3 and/or 7.5 μM curcumin (NB - This is ~20x lower concentration 514

than what we routinely used for yeast. The difference in human vs yeast cell 515

sensitivity to curcumin may be due to the yeast cell wall or the multiple drug 516

efflux pumps present in yeast cells). Cells were then trypsinized (100 μl of 0.05% 517

trypsin; 5 min RT), resuspended in DMEM and FCS, harvested by centrifugation 518

and resuspended in PBS. Cell density was determined for each culture by 519

counting three fields with a hemocytometer. Fold growth presented is relative to 520

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the density of the starting culture (t = 0) and error bars represent the standard 521

deviation of the mean. 522

523

Acknowledgements 524

We thank Caroline Philpott and Dennis Winge for kindly providing plasmids used 525

in this work. We thank the Environmental Measurement: Gas-Solution Analytical 526

Center at Stanford University for their assistance with the ICP-AES 527

measurments. We also acknowledge Aaron Goldman for key technical 528

assistance. M.S.C. is supported by National Institutes of Health research grant 529

GM-48728. T.P.S is supported by NIH grant GM52022. C.N. and G.G. are 530

supported by a grant from NHGRI and the Canadian Institutes of Health (84305) 531

CN and (81340) GG. 532

533

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Table 1. Biologic Process Gene Iron ion import / iron homeostasis Copper ion import / copper homeostasis Copper and iron homeostasis Others: Cell signaling RNA Pol II-mediated transcription Vesicle-associated secretion Vacuolar acidification Phospholipid translocation Ergosterol biosynthesis Programmed cell death

FET3, FTR1, AFT1 CTR1, MAC1 ATX1, GEF1, CCC2 (YDR269c also disrupts CCC2) SAC1 GAL11 ERV14 VMA3, VMA13, VMA21 LEM3 ERG3 YSP1

Page 37: Curcumin inhibits growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae through iron

Minear, S., et al., Figures

Figure 1

WTfet3ΔΔ

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Page 38: Curcumin inhibits growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae through iron

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Page 39: Curcumin inhibits growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae through iron

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Page 40: Curcumin inhibits growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae through iron

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+ B

PS

+ F

e

+ 10

0 C

urc.

+ F

e

+ 15

0 C

urc.

+ F

e

+ 15

0 C

urc.

+ 10

0 C

urc.

Page 41: Curcumin inhibits growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae through iron

Minear, S., et al., Figures

Figure 5

Fold

Gro

wth

Fold

Gro

wth

t = 0

cul

ture

+ D

MS

O+

Fe+

Cur

c.+

Cur

c. +

Fe

t = 24 hrs