Role of Curcumin in Treatment of Alzheimer Disease

Abstract

A lot of research findings support that curcumin (diferuloyl methane) has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antitumor activity. In India, curcumin has widespread use as a food additive and herbal medicine for human diseases without any side effect. Though curcumin is well established as an anticancer agent there are a few reports about its promising role against amyloid diseases. According to a recent finding, curcumin plays a crucial inhibitory role in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Oral administration of curcumin or its metabolites has shown the inhibition of Aβ deposition, Aβ oligomerization and tau phosphorylation in the brain of AD animal model including behavioral improvement. But still, it is unknown whether the curcumin is directly involved in those processes or enhance those mechanisms. Thus in this review, we want to focus on the overall mechanism of curcumin in AD. Some strategies to overcome the problem of low absorption and fast clearance of curcumin nanoparticles have also been proposed.