Crucial Role of Curcumin, Piperine and Taurine on Immunological Criteria in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients

Abstract

Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma is the fifth most common cancer worldwide. The majority of HCC patients are diagnosed at advanced stage, and curative therapeutic options for HCC are very limited. Therefore, searching for additional therapy is strongly recommended. It has been shown that, curcumin and taurine revealed therapeutic role against hepatocarcinoma cells propagated ex-vivo and in vivo using experimental animal model in addition to piperine was found to increase the absorption and the bioavailability of curcumin. Patients and methods: Mononuclearleukocytes(MNLs) and serum were obtained from HCC patients (N=15) before and after treatment with 4 g curcumin mixed with 0.02 gm piperine and 0.5 gm taurine taken daily for three weeks, and six weeks compared to untreated healthy control (N=30). Sera Cytokines levels and immunophenotypic characterization of MNL were determined. Clinical data for the patients were also performed. Results: Regarding, cytokine evaluation in sera of the patient’s post-treatment did show that, IL-10 was significant decrease, on contrary there was significant increase in IFN-γ level. On contrast, levels of IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, and TGF-α did not show significant difference compared to baseline (before treatment). As for immunophentyping of MNL of the patients under investigation; there were highly significant differences in CD4+%, CD8+%, CD4+CD25+%, and CD8+CD25+% after treatment compared to baseline (untreated patients). Conclusion: Curcumin, piperine and taurine open novel avenue as promising therapeutic natural derived agents in treatment of patients suffering from hepatocellular Carcinoma.