Curcumin analogues for possible cancer treatment A QSAR and partial ordering study

The possible effect of curcumin as a potential natural cancer treatment drug has been intensively discussed. In the present study the probabilities of a series of curcumin analogues to possess potential as antineoplastic, prostate cancer treatment and anticarcinogenic agents has been studied theoretically applying a selection of quantitative structure-activity relation and absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) approaches. From spectroscopic studies it is evident that these compounds can be found in both enol and diketo forms, the former in general the more predominant in non-polar solvents, whereas in polar solvents, like water an increasing amount of the diketo form can be noted. Hence, the probabilities for both the enols and diketo forms to possess the above-mentioned effects were studied. In most cases the enol form shows the highest probabilities for being effective although the differences are not significant. Thus, it is suggested to look at the sum of effects of the keto and the enol forms in relation to the possible therapeutic effects of the compounds here studied.