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Is it the Curry?
In India, the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease among 70- to 79-year
olds is 4.4-fold less than that of the United States.
Since it became clear that AD is characterized by chronic inflammation
and oxidative damage--and that patients taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory
drugs (NSAIDs) had a reduced risk of AD--researchers have focused attention
on strategies to reduce these interrelated cytotoxic processes in AD.
There has been a particular interest in finding alternatives to NSAIDs,
which have significant side effects with long-term use.
Cole and his colleagues noted that curcumin, a yellow curry spice derived
from turmeric, is a potent antioxidant. It is several times more potent
a free radical scavenger than vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol), which has
been unsuccessfully tested as a therapy to slow the progression of AD.
The researchers tested two dietary doses (160 and 5000 ppm) of curcumin
on APPSw transgenic mice. Thanks to the defective AbPP gene from a Swedish
family with hereditary AD, these mice display some of the hallmarks of
AD (the accumulation of neuritic plaques, memory deficits as they age,
as well as chronic inflammatory responses and oxidative damage). After
being fed curcumin from the age of 10 to 16 months, mice in both the low-
and high-dose groups had significantly lower brain levels of oxidized
proteins and interleukin-1, a proinflammatory cytokine. With the lower
dose only, there were significant reductions in the astrocytic marker
GFAP (associated with injury and inflammatory processes), and in insoluble
Ab, soluble Ab, and plaque burden. "In light of its efficacy and apparent
low toxicity, this Indian spice component shows promise for the prevention
Alzheimer's disease.....The curry spice curcumin reduces oxidative damage
and amyloid pathology in an Alzheimer transgenic mouse."
J Neuroscience. 1 Nov 2001;21(21):8370-7.
Update: 9/04
Masahito Yamada and Kenjiro Ono, will present more data on September
30, 2004 at the Japanese Society of Dementia Research conference iin Tokyo.
Evidently, they found that Curcumin (in tumeric), which makes curry yellow,
decreases the "fiber-forming ability" of amyloid beta and even
dissolves already-fibrous amyloid beta. THis has implications for prevention
through diet and for development of a treatment drug.
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