Identifying agents that inhibit the proliferation of cancer stem cells is of great importance in cancer biology. Curcumin has been shown to function as an anti-cancer agent. One of the tumor suppressors that appear to be induced in response to curcumin treatment is p53. A recent study suggests that curcumin increases the expression of miRNAs, such as miR-22, miR-181a, b, c, miR-34, miR-103, and miR-21. Intriguingly, miR-34, 181b, c, miR-103, miR-21, and miR-24 have been identified as transcriptional targets of the tumor suppressor p53. This data suggests a possibility that curcumin, by inducing the expression of p53, it could increase the expression of these microRNAs. A number of groups have shown that c-Myc, Sox-2, Klf-4, Oct-4, Sox-2, Nanog, and... |