Turmeric treatment for Parkinson’s

Turmeric, that quintessential ingredient in many an Indian food item, now has one more medicinal property to its name. A collaborative research study, which involved scientists from the National Institute for Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans) also, has found that the spice’s anti-oxidant property could be effective in treating Parkinson’s disease.

Turmeric gets the anti-oxidant property from curcumin, which gives the spice its yellow colour. Curcumin improves the body’s immunity against various diseases.

“Curcumin is recognised worldwide for its medicinal property,” said MM Srinivas Bharath, the co-author of the study and a faculty member at the department of neurochemistry, Nimhans. “It can be used as a drug for any kind of disease as it is an anti-oxidant that provides immunity to the body.”

But it cannot be absorbed by the human body cells since it is insoluble in water. Scientists from Nimhans, along with researchers from Indo-Russian Centre for Biotechnology in Allahabad, and Cellworks Group Inc in Bangalore, “improvised” curcumin to get round its “non-bio availability” (low absorption rate in the body). “During the experiment, we found positive results for treating Parkinson’s disease,” Bharath said.

The disease is caused by the loss of neurons — in the mid-brain — that produce the chemical, dopamine, which controls body movements. Oxidative stress (the presence of free radicals in the body that react with cell molecules and damage the cells) caused by the depletion of the cellular antioxidant, glutathione (GSH), is said to be responsible for the neurodegeneration. This then manifests as tremors in limbs and uncontrolled body movements, the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

“Curcumin can prevent the degeneration or the death of the cells,” Bharath said. Besides anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties, curcumin also had therapeutic potential for neurological disorders, he said. It also had the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, he said.

The research team — G Harish, Rajeswara Babu Mythri, C Venkateshappa, Shiv Kumar Dubey, Krishna Mishra, Neetu Singh, Shireen Vali and MM Srinivas Bharath — embarked on the study to increase the solubility of curcumin in the body using bio-conjugates in 2007.

The scientists attached amino acids, which are easily absorbed by the body, to curcumin and injected it into cultured cells. The amino acids easily entered the cells along with curcumin. “Once curcumin enters the cell, it is de-tagged from the amino acids and carries on its function of preventing the degeneration or death of the cells,” the co-author explained.

The “improvised” curcumin can act as a supplementary medicine for treating Parkinson’s disease. “The drug available now generates dopamine to control the movement of the body, but it is not able to stop the cells from dying. Hence, it fails to attack the cause,” Bharath said. “When used with curcumin, which prevents degeneration of the neuron cells, it can delay the disease.”

Curcumin could also increase the anti-oxidant load responsible for immunity in the body, he said.

The studies, however, were only at experimental stages and yet to go for human trials, Bharath said. “Once it goes through human trials it will become the drug to fight any disease,” he said.

The researchers have successfully tested the efficacy of curcumin in its purified form in mice. “We are planning to test the improvised one soon,” he said. “Now, there is promise of a molecule that can fight the disease.”