1: Pharmazie. 2007 Dec;62(12):937-42.

Neuroprotective effect of curcumin is mainly mediated by blockade of microglial
cell activation.

Lee HS, Jung KK, Cho JY, Rhee MH, Hong S, Kwon M, Kim SH, Kang SY.

Pharmacology Department, National Institute of Toxicological Research, KFDA,
Seoul, South Korea.

Curcumin, the major yellow pigment in turmeric (Curcuma longa), is a
well-documented naturally-occurring anti-oxidant with numerous pharmacological
activities such as anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic and anti-bacterial
effects. In this study, curcumin's neuroprotective effect was carefully examined
using a coculture system, based on reports that curcumin-containing plants are
neuroprotective. Coculturing neuronal cells and activated microglial cells
enhanced dopamine-induced neuronal cell death from 30% up to 50%. However,
curcumin did not protect dopamine-directed neuronal cell death and sodium
nitroprosside (SNP)-induced NO generation, but only blocked activated microglial
cell-mediated neuronal cell damage under inflammatory conditions. Indeed,
curcumin blocked the production of pro-inflammatory and cytotoxic mediators such
as NO, TNF-alpha, IL-1alpha, and IL-6 produced from Abeta(25-35)/IFN-gamma- and
LPS-stimulated microglia, in a dose-dependent manner. Therefore, our results
suggest that curcumin-mediated neuroprotective effects may be mostly due to its
anti-inflammatory effects.


PMID: 18214347 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]