Abstract 5257: Cellular pharmacology of curcumin cellular pharmacology of curcumin±piperine

Rationale: Prior reports have suggested that piperine, the major alkaloid product derived from black and long pepper, enhances curcumin’s cancer preventive efficacy in vitro and in vivo by an intracellular pharmacokinetic interaction; yet, no previous studies have explored the pharmacokinetic interactions between curcumin and piperine. Methods: We incubated non-transformed breast cell line MCF10A and breast cancer SUM149 cell line with different concentrations of curcumin, piperine or curcumin + piperine to assess cell viability using a MTT assay. For curcumin and piperine uptake assays, we incubated MCF10A, SUM149 and MCF7 breast cells with either 5 µM curcumin or 5 µM curcumin + 5 µM piperine for 0.5, 1, 4,6,8,12 and 24 h, or with 15 µM curcumin or 15 µM curcumin + 10 µM piperine for 0.17, 0.5, 1,2 and 4h. Media and cell lysates were extracted for assay of intracellular curcumin and piperine by LC-MS/MS. ALDH+ , ALDH-CD44+24- cells were collected via FACS, incubated with 15 µM curcumin or 15 µM curcumin + 10 µM piperine for 1 hour. Cell lysates and media were assayed for curcumin, curcumin degradation and metabolic products and quantified using LC-MS/MS. Results: 90.7±0.06% and 34.8 ±0.002% of cells were viable after incubating MCF10A and SUM149 cells respectively with 25 µM curcumin compared to DMSO control. Incubation with 10 µM Piperine enhanced the antiproliferative effect of 15 µM curcumin by 33.6±0.015% (P< 0.05) and 16.3±0.003% (P