YEN-TING LUCHIAO-WEN LINCHUNG-HAN HSINSHUN-FA YANG2026-10-162026-10-162024-12-01Pure ID: 15393599Pure UUID: ccd91740-5056-49be-9656-bdf87b30090c10.1016/j.oraloncology.2024.107038https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85203656284https://scholars.csmu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/32675Objective: Metastatic disease is a major issue of treatment failure in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients and often linked to high mortality. L48H37, a synthetic analog of curcumin with augmented bioavailability over its parent compound, has demonstrated several oncostatic characteristics. This study was aimed to explore the anti-metastatic effect of L48H37 on NPC cancer cells and its underlying mechanism. Methods: Cell viability was evaluated using MTT assay. Regulation of signaling pathways was elucidated by immunoblotting, and specific kinase inhibitors. Results: In this study, we showed that L48H37 suppressed TPA-stimulated invasive and migratory capacities of NPC cell lines and gave rise to very little cytotoxic responses. Such anti-cancer effect of L48H37 was accompanied with attenuated expression levels and enzymatic activities of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), a pivotal mediator of metastatic processes. In addition, L48H37 interfered with TPA-induced JNK activation, and the treatment of L48H37 combined with a JNK antagonist demonstrated a synergistic effect on restraining TPA-stimulated MMP-9 activity and migration events in NPC cells. Conclusions: Our results revealed that L48H37 impeded the invasive potential of NPC cells via impairment of MMP-9 function and abundance, highlighting possible complementary therapies using curcumin or its effective analogs to manage NPC dissemination.enjournal article