Cole Greg M, Teter Bruce, Frautschy Sally A
Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinic Center, Sepulveda, CA 91343, USA.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2007;595:197-212. doi: 10.1007/978-0-387-46401-5_8.
Neurodegenerative diseases result in the loss of functional neurons and synapses. Although future stem cell therapies offer some hope, current treatments for most of these diseases are less than adequate and ourbest hope is to prevent these devastating diseases. Neuroprotective approaches work best prior to the initiation of damage, suggesting that some safe and effective prophylaxis would be highly desirable. Curcumin has an outstanding safety profile and a number of pleiotropic actions with potential for neuroprotective efficacy, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-protein-aggregate activities. These can be achieved at submicromolar levels. Curcumin's dose-response curves are strongly dose dependent and often biphasic so that in vitro data need to be cautiously interpreted; many effects might not be achievable in target tissues in vivo with oral dosing. However, despite concerns about poor oral bioavailability, curcumin has at least 10 known neuroprotective actions and many of these might be realized in vivo. Indeed, accumulating cell culture and animal model data show that dietary curcumin is a strong candidate for use in the prevention or treatment of major disabling age-related neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and stroke. Promising results have already led to ongoing pilot clinical trials.
神经退行性疾病会导致功能性神经元和突触的丧失。尽管未来的干细胞疗法带来了一些希望，但目前针对大多数此类疾病的治疗方法并不理想，我们最大的希望是预防这些毁灭性疾病。神经保护方法在损伤开始前效果最佳，这表明一些安全有效的预防措施将非常受欢迎。姜黄素具有出色的安全性，并且具有多种具有神经保护功效潜力的多效性作用，包括抗炎、抗氧化和抗蛋白质聚集活性。这些作用可以在亚微摩尔水平实现。姜黄素的剂量反应曲线强烈依赖剂量，且通常呈双相性，因此体外数据需要谨慎解读；口服给药时，许多作用可能在体内靶组织中无法实现。然而，尽管存在口服生物利用度差的问题，姜黄素至少有10种已知的神经保护作用，其中许多可能在体内实现。事实上，越来越多的细胞培养和动物模型数据表明，饮食中的姜黄素是预防或治疗阿尔茨海默病、帕金森病和中风等主要致残性年龄相关神经退行性疾病的有力候选药物。有希望的结果已经导致正在进行的试点临床试验。
