Some interesting stuff of recent vintage-

For my money this team is the top of the heap:
1: Neurochem Res. 2008 Oct;33(10):2044-53. Epub 2008 Mar 27.

Curcumin protects dopaminergic neuron against LPS induced neurotoxicity in
primary rat neuron/glia culture.

Yang S, Zhang D, Yang Z, Hu X, Qian S, Liu J, Wilson B, Block M, Hong JS.

Laboratory of Pharmacology and Chemistry, National Institute of Environmental,
Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, PO Box 12233, Research Triangle
Park, NC 27709, USA.

Using primary rat mesencephalic neuron-glia cultures as an in vitro model of
Parkinson's disease (PD), we tested the effect of curcumin, a natural dietary
pigment with well-known anti-inflammation effects, on dopaminergic (DA)
degeneration. Curcumin pretreatment mitigated LPS-induced DA neurotoxicity in a
concentration-dependent manner and curcumin post-treatment also showed protective
effect. Microglia depletion abolished this protective effect of curcumin,
indicating that microglia play an important role in this effect. Supportively,
observation by immunocytochemistry staining using OX-42 antibody showed that
curcumin treatment inhibited LPS-induced morphological change of microglia.
Besides, LPS-induced production of many proinflammatory factors and their gene
expressions decreased dramatically after curcumin treatment. Results also
revealed that curcumin treatment decreased LPS-induced activation of two
transcription factors--nuclear factors kappaB (NF-kappaB) and activator protein-1
(AP-1). Taken together, our study implicated that curcumin might be a potential
preventive and therapeutic strategy for inflammation-related neurodegenerative
diseases.


PMID: 18368483 [PubMed - in process]