Synthetic strategies in curcumin chemistry focused on anticancer applications

Abstract

In spite of having received considerable interest as a potential anticancer agent over the past two decades, curcumin has not been developed into a sturdy drug candidate yet, mainly due to the challenges imposed by its rapidly metabolizable structure, leading to bioavailability and stability issues, and its aspecific activity. To circumvent these obstacles, chemical modification of the parent scaffold has been shown to involve an eligible approach for the construction of curcuminoids with improved properties. This review article provides a compilation of curcumin modifications and the effect thereof on the anticancer activity displayed by the resulting new analogs.