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Alzheimer's, Dementia & Mental Health
Chemical from Curry Helps Immune System's 'PacMen'
Gobble Plaque Found in Alzheimer's
Treatment with
curcumin different from other vaccine approaches
 October
5, 2006 – In a small test with senior citizens – age 65 to 84 –
researchers found that curcumin — a chemical found in curry and turmeric
— may help the immune system clear the brain of amyloid beta, which form
the plaques found in Alzheimer’s disease. The UCLA/VA researchers used a
drug derived from curcumin to treat the immune system’s "PacMen" that
travel through the brain and body, gobbling up waste products, and found
them doing a better job of gobbling up the damaging amyloid beta.
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Alzheimer's, Dementia & Mental Health |
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Published in the October 9 issue of the Journal of
Alzheimer’s Disease, the early laboratory findings may lead to a new
approach in treating Alzheimer’s disease by enhancing the natural
function of the immune system using curcumin, known for its
anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties.
Using blood samples from six Alzheimer’s disease
patients and three healthy control patients, the researchers isolated
cells called macrophages, which are the immune system’s PacMen that
travel through the brain and body, gobbling up waste products, including
amyloid beta.
The team treated the macrophages with a drug
derived from curcumin for 24 hours in a cell culture and then introduced
amyloid beta.
Treated macrophages from three out of six
Alzheimer’s disease patients showed improved uptake or ingestion of the
waste product compared to the patients’ macrophages not treated with
curcumin. Macrophages from the healthy controls, which were already
effectively clearing amyloid beta, showed no change when curcumin was
added.
“Curcumin improved ingestion of amyloid beta by
immune cells in 50 percent of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. These
initial findings demonstrate that curcumin may help boost the immune
system of specific Alzheimer’s disease patients,” said Dr. Milan Fiala,
study author and a researcher with the David Geffen School of Medicine
at UCLA and the VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System. “We are
hopeful that these positive results in a test tube may translate to
clinical use, but more studies need to be done before curcumin can be
recommended.”
The patients ranged in age from 65 to 84.
Fiala noted that the patients whose immune cells
responded were younger and had higher scores on a Mini-Mental State
Examination suggesting that curcumin may help those with less advanced
dementia. Some of the patients may have already had additional curcumin
in their systems due to participation in another UCLA study, which may
have impacted findings.
“Our next step will be to identify the factors that
helped these immune cells respond,” said Laura Zhang, a study author and
a UCLA/VA research assistant in Fiala’s lab.
Fiala noted that the method researchers used to
test the immune cell response of macrophages may provide a novel way of
evaluating the effectiveness of drugs in clearing amyloid beta from the
brain and may help to individualize Alzheimer’s disease treatment.
According to Fiala, macrophages are the soldiers of
the innate immune system — the part of the immune system which is
present at birth. Curcumin may support the body’s natural immune
fighting function in directly helping macrophages clean away amyloid-beta.
The treatment of macrophages with curcumin is radically different from
some of the vaccine approaches currently being studied.
Editor's Notes:
The study was funded by the Alzheimer’s Disease
Association and private donors. The curcumin derived drug was provided
by the Sabinsa Corporation, a company that manufacturers phytonutrients
and specialty chemicals for nutritional, pharmaceutical and food
industries. Fiala participated in a speaking engagement for Sabinsa.
Other study authors include: Michelle Mahanian,
Justin Zaghi and Mark Rosenthal from the Department of Medicine,
Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and David Geffen
School of Medicine at UCLA; John Cashman of the Human BioMolecular
Research Institute, San Diego; James Sayre of the Department of
Biostatistics, UCLA School of Public Health; Araceli Espinosa of the
UCLA Department of Neurobiology; Vladimir Badmaev, Applied Pharmacology,
Sabinsa Corporation, New Jersey; Michael C. Graves, UCLA Department of
Neurology; and George Bernard, UCLA Department of Neurology and Division
of Oral Biology and Medicine, UCLA School of Dentistry.
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