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Updated: Aug 13, 2025

Author Spotlight: Tracing the Ferroptotic Signatures and Cell Death Dynamics in Medulloblastoma for Advanced Therapeutics
Published on: March 15, 2024
Curcumin Induces Ferroptosis in Follicular Thyroid Cancer by Upregulating HO-1 Expression
Huanjie Chen1, Zhoufan Li1, Jingchao Xu1
1Department of General Surgery, The Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian Liaoning Province, China.
Abstract:
Follicular thyroid cancer (FTC) is a highly aggressive type of endocrine malignancy. It is necessary to investigate the mechanisms of tumorigenesis and therapeutic pathways in patients with FTC. Haem oxygenase-1 (HO-1) can regulate oxidative stress and the occurrence of tumors and diseases. In this study, we discovered that HO-1 was abnormally overexpressed in FTC compared with adjacent tissues. However, the HO-1 overexpression was demonstrated to decrease cell viability and to potentially activate the ferroptosis signalling pathway. Ferroptosis is a newly identified form of oxidative cell death and is currently being targeted as a new cancer treatment. Tumorigenesis is significantly inhibited by curcumin. The present study shows that curcumin inhibits the growth of FTC by increasing the HO-1 expression, further activating the ferroptosis pathway. This study demonstrates that the HO-1-ferroptosis signalling pathway might play an important role in FTC tumorigenesis, and that curcumin inhibits the growth of FTC cells by affecting this pathway.
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