Curcumin enhances the effectiveness of cisplatin by suppressing CD133(+) cancer stem cells in laryngeal carcinoma treatment

Chemoresistance is one of the major barriers to chemotherapeutic treatment and it has been established that CD133(+) cancer stem cells are responsible for drug resistance in laryngeal carcinoma. In the present study, curcumin and cisplatin were used as a combined treatment to induce the sensitivity of CD133(+) cancer stem cells to chemotherapeutic agents and to enhance therapeutic effectiveness. The results revealed that in untreated and cisplatin-treated HEp-2 cell groups, the percentage of CD133(+) cells was 4.50 and 6.89%, respectively. However, in the combined treatment group, the percentage of CD133(+) cells was markedly reduced to 1.49%, indicating that curcumin may increase the sensitivity of CD133(+) cells to cisplatin, leading to the suppression of chemoresistance in HEp-2 cells. Furthermore, the expression of ATP-binding cassette sub-family G member 2 (ABCG2), which is an important gene for chemoresistance, was demonstrated to be reduced in CD133(+) cancer stem cells following combined treatment. These results suggest that the combined application of curcumin with chemotherapeutic drugs may be a reliable and effective approach for the treatment of laryngeal carcinoma.