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Johns Hopkins Researchers at Neuroscience 2008 - Curcumin, derived from the curry spice turmeric, has strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Both oxidative damage - damage caused by oxygen - and inflammation have been implicated in nerve cell death associated with Parkinson's disease. Now, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have shown in a laboratory model of Parkinson's disease that curcumin does protect cells from dying.

To test the protective effects of curcumin, the research team used a Parkinson's disease cell model system. They tested curcumin on nerve-like cells that make a mutant form of the protein alpha-synuclein, called A53T, that clumps together inside of cells to cause harmful biochemical and cellular changes that eventually kill the cells. A53T alpha-synuclein causes 50 percent of untreated cells to die, whereas only 19 percent of A53T cells treated with curcumin died. Further research showed that curcumin itself reduces oxidative damage.

"These results suggest that curcumin is a potential candidate for inhibiting the oxidative damage that leads to Parkinson's disease," says Wanli Smith, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Hopkins. "This common curry spice could be a weapon to protect the brain."

Johns Hopkins Medicine
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