Related: Resveratrol and curcumin, plant’s own weapons that protect the brain
1. Curcumin is a better antioxidant than alpha-tocopherol and can protect blood vessel cells from oxidative stress caused by Amyloid beta peptide (Abeta), the main constituent of amyloid plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Interestingly, with low-dose curcumin, but not with high-dose curcumin the plaque occurrence was decreased by up to 50%.
2. Curcumin significantly lowered levels of oxidized proteins, which content is elevated in the brains of mice model of AD.
3. Curcumin inhibits the formation of fibrillar Abeta (fAbeta) and destabilized already formed fAbeta.
4. In animal models of AD, curcumin prevented cognitive deficits presumably by binding the redox-active metals Fe and Cu.
5. Curcumin decreased Abeta formation. When fed to aged mice with advanced amyloid accumulation, curcumin directly binds small beta-amyloid and blocks fibril formation.
6. Beta-amyloid peptide can form a peroxidase playing a major role in the pathologies of AD. Curcumin inhibits this peroxidase.
7. Curcumin enhances the phagocytosis and Abeta removal by macrophages, the process that is impaired in patients with AD.
8. Curcumin crosses the blood–brain barrier, disrupts existing plaques and partially restores damaged neurones in annimal AD model leading to a significant reversal of structural neuronal damage.
Source
B.B. Aggarwal, K.B. Harikumar. Potential therapeutic effects of curcumin, the anti-inflammatory agent, against neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic, autoimmune and neoplastic diseases. The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology 41 (2009) 40–59
