A look at how curcumin affects cells in Alzheimer's disease
and how this research may relate to HD
The Effects of Curcumin On the Cells of Rodents with Alzheimer's
The process through which Alzheimer's disease degrades nerve cells is believed to involve three things: inflammation, oxidative damage, and most notably, the formation of beta-amyloid plaques. In order to understand how curcumin combats AD, we will look at its effects on each of these three phenomena.
Inflammation
On a short-term scale, inflammation is a very helpful event:
it is the body's way of protecting itself from foreign invaders. However, over
an extended period of time, inflammation can actually be quite harmful. (For
more info about inflammation, click here.)
One of the ways that AD degrades nerve cells (and thus results in the manifestation
of the disease's symptoms) is by causing chronic inflammation in the central
nervous system. For this reason, populations that exhibit prolonged use
of certain nonsteroidal
anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drugs like ibuprofen have been shown to have a
reduced risk of developing the symptoms of AD. However, while ibuprofen
significantly reduces the amount of inflammation in the central nervous system,
its prolonged use has dangerous side effects like gastrointestinal,
liver, and
kidney
damage.
Curcumin is a natural NSAID. For this reason, in mice models of AD, it was shown to reduce the levels of inflammation in the brain by about 60% (as measured by the reduced presence of a certain indicator of inflammation). An added benefit of curcumin is that it appears to be far less toxic than most drug NSAIDs. If further research confirms the safety of the substance, its use may become an alternative to drug NSAIDs for combating AD.
Oxidative Damage
Like Huntington's disease, AD can also increase the number
of free
radicals that nerve cells produce. Over time, this increased number of free
radicals leads to oxidative damage, which can degrade nerve cells. In comparison
to untreated mice with AD, mice with AD that were treated with curcumin had
significantly reduced levels of free radicals. Thus, the oxidative damage that
AD caused to the nerve cells of the curcumin mice was far less than the damage
to the untreated mice.
Beta-Amyloid Plaques
The most prominent characteristic in the brains of people
with Alzheimer's disease is the presence of beta-amyloid
plaques. These plaques are basically an accumulation of small fibers called
beta-amyloid fibrils.
The plaques can be found in the spaces between nerve cells, and in addition to being a tell-tale sign of the disease, their presence
is believed to contribute greatly to the neurodegenerative process of AD.
The levels of beta-amyloid
in AD mice that were given low doses of curcumin were decreased by around 40%
in comparison to those AD mice that were not treated with curcumin. In addition,
low doses of curcumin also caused a 43% decrease in the so-called "plaque
burden" that these beta-amyloids have on the brains of AD mice. Surprisingly,
those AD mice that received high doses of curcumin did not show any decreases
in beta-amyloid levels or plaque burden in comparison with untreated mice. While
the exact reason for this finding is not yet clear, the results of it are intriguing:
low doses of curcumin were actually more effective than high doses in combating
the neurodegenerative process of AD.
Last Modified: 7-6-04
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