The Differential Antagonistic Ability of Curcumin against Cytotoxicity and Genotoxicity Induced by Distinct Heavy Metals

Abstract

Widespread heavy metal pollution has aroused severe health risks worldwide. Curcumin has been reported to play a wide-spectrum protective role for various heavy metals. However, the specificity and difference in the antagonistic ability of curcumin against distinct types of heavy metals are still largely unknown. Here, using cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), lead (Pb), and nickel (Ni) as the typical heavy metals, we systematically compared the detoxification efficiency of curcumin on the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity elicited by different heavy metals under the same experimental conditions. Curcumin was proved to have a significant discrepant antagonistic capacity when counteracting the adverse effect of different heavy metals. Stronger protective effects of curcumin emerged when antagonizing the toxicity of Cd and As, rather than Pb and Ni. Curcumin exhibits a better detoxification ability against heavy metal-induced genotoxicity than cytotoxicity. Mechanistically, inhibiting the oxidative stress elicited by heavy metals and reducing the bioaccumulation of metal ions both contributed to the detoxification of curcumin against all the tested heavy metals. Our results illustrated that curcumin shows prominent detoxification specificity against different types of heavy metals and toxic endpoints, which provides a new clue for the better and targeted application of curcumin in heavy metal detoxification.