The natural product curcumin has been demonstrated to inhibit numerous targets in prostate epithelial cells with an importance in cancer formation and progression, including transcription factors, receptors, intracellular kinases, cytokines and growth factors. The effect on androgen receptor (AR) and on its target PSA has been demonstrated by several independent investigators using both endogenously expressed AR in in LNCaP cells and ectopically expressed AR in PC-3 cells. AR has a critical role in prostate cancer development and progression. Several curcumin analogues with different linker groups were investigated for their effects in human prostate cancer cell lines. The activities of compounds with a heteroatom linker [E10 and F10] demonstrated improved effects compared with those without a heteroatom linker, which suggests that flexibility of curcumin-like compounds may enhance their antitumor activities by having interactions with the DNA of cancer cells and disrupting the activity of transcription factors, such as AR. The results indicate that one of the potential mechanisms for the anticancer effect of curcumin analogues was inhibition of AR pathways in human prostate cancer cells.\r\n\r\nZhou, Dai-Ying, et al. Curcumin analogues with high activity for inhibiting human prostate cancer cell growth and androgen receptor activation. Molecular Medicine Reports published online July 14, 2014. https://doi.org/10.3892/mmr.2014.2380 pages 1315-1322.