Curcumin Shown to Inhibit DYRK2 and Reduce Cancer Burden

University of California San Diego School of Medicine scientists, in collaboration with colleagues at Peking University and Zhejiang University, report that curcumin, a natural occurring chemical compound found in the spice turmeric, binds to the kinase enzyme dual-specificity tyrosine-regulated kinase 2 (DYRK2) at the atomic level. This previously unreported biochemical interaction of curcumin, discovered using x-ray crystallography and kinase-inhibitor specificity profiling, leads to