The Curry Spice Curcumin Reduces Oxidative Damage and Amyloid Pathology in an Alzheimer Transgenic Mouse
By Giselle P. Lim, T. Chu, Fusheng Yang, W. Beech, S. Frautschy, G. Cole. Journal of Neuroscience, 2001
1,527 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Inflammation in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients is characterized by increased cytokines and activated microglia. Epidemiological studies suggest reduced AD risk associates with long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Whereas chronic ibuprofen suppressed inflammation and plaque-related pathology in an Alzheimer transgenic APPSw mouse model (Tg2576), excessive use of NSAIDs targeting cyclooxygenase I can cause gastrointestinal, liver, and renal toxicity. One alternative NSAID is curcumin, derived from the curry spice turmeric. Curcumin has an extensive history as a food additive and herbal medicine in India and is also a potent polyphenolic antioxidant. To evaluate whether it could affect Alzheimer-like pathology in the APPSw mice, we tested a low (160 ppm) and a high dose of dietary curcumin (5000 ppm) on inflammation, oxidative damage, and plaque pathology. Low and high doses of curcumin significantly lowered oxidized proteins and interleukin-1β, a proinflammatory cytokine elevated in the brains of these mice. With low-dose but not high-dose curcumin treatment, the astrocytic marker GFAP was reduced, and insoluble β-amyloid (Aβ), soluble Aβ, and plaque burden were significantly decreased by 43–50%. However, levels of amyloid precursor (APP) in the membrane fraction were not reduced. Microgliosis was also suppressed in neuronal layers but not adjacent to plaques. In view of its efficacy and apparent low toxicity, this Indian spice component shows promise for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease.
Subfields: Molecular Medicine, Neurology, Physiology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a604dbead97771e358f85ac857e424582d2e09c9
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Citations in the corpus
- Oxidative Stress and the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer's Disease (2013, background): “It was demonstrated that defects in antioxidant defense system caused elevated oxidative stress and significantly increased Abeta deposition in transgenic mice overexpressing APP mutant [41, 42], while dietary antioxidants such as curcumin lowered the elevation of oxidized proteins and decreased bra”
- Curcumin: Preventive and Therapeutic Properties in Laboratory Studies and Clinical Trials (2008, neutral): “However, it should be noted that the levels of amyloid precursor (APP) in the membrane fraction remained unaffected, un-derlining the need for further studies to scrutinize the mechanisms of curcumin’s potential effects in AD (155).”
- Docosahexaenoic acid protects from dendritic pathology in an Alzheimer's disease mouse model. (2004, positive): “This can be at least partially controlled, as the present data suggest, by increased intake of DHA and should be reduced by antioxidants from diet or supplements (Joseph et al., 2003; Lim et al., 2001).”
- A Review of the Antioxidant Mechanisms of Polyphenol Compounds Related to Iron Binding (2009, background): “neurodegeneration in a mouse model, likely through a similar mechanism to green tea catechins [230, 231].”
- Therapeutics of Alzheimer's disease: Past, present and future. (2014, background): “Curcumin also inhibits HAT activity (Kozikowski et al., 2009; Lim et al., 2001).”
- Polymeric nanoparticle-encapsulated curcumin ("nanocurcumin"): a novel strategy for human cancer therapy (2007, background): “Nanocurcumin opens up avenues for systemic therapy of human cancers, as well as other human maladies like Alzheimer disease [48-51] and cystic fibrosis [52-54], wherein the beneficial effects of curcumin have been propounded.”
- Mitochondria are a direct site of A beta accumulation in Alzheimer's disease neurons: implications for free radical generation and oxidative damage in disease progression. (2006, methodology): “Measurement of soluble and insoluble Ab levels inTg2576 mice and WT mice The cerebral cortex from the right half of each mouse brain was snap-frozen on dry ice at the time of sacrifice and stored at 2708C until a homogenate was prepared according to Lim et al. ( 55 ) and Stackman et al. (56).”
- Chemopreventive and therapeutic effects of curcumin. (2005, background): “Moreover, curcumin protects keratinocytes and fibroblasts against H2O2-induced damages [32] and allows reduction of oxidative and inflammatory stress in Alzheimer patients [33].”
- Herbal extracts and phytochemicals: plant secondary metabolites and the enhancement of human brain function. (2011, background): “In animals, some of the physiological effects attributed to curcumin include activity against a range of neurologic diseases in animal models, including AD (222), multiple sclerosis (223), Parkinson’s disease (224), age-associated neurodegeneration (225), schizophrenia (226), and depression (227).”
- Mitochondria take center stage in aging and neurodegeneration (2005, background): “Consistent with these observations, administration of antioxidants significantly reduces amyloid plaque deposition in transgenic mouse models of AD.(34,35)”