Curcumin: Reintroduced Therapeutic Agent from Traditional Medicine for Alcoholic Liver Disease
نویسندگان
1 Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Research Center, School of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Science, Mashhad, Iran
2 Pharmaceutical Research Center, School of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
3 Biochemistry of Nutrition Research Center, and Department of New Sciences and Technology, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
4 Neurogenic Inflammation Research Center, Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
5 Student Research Committee, Department of Modern Sciences & Technologies, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
6 Nanotechnology Research Center, School of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Science, Mashhad, Iran
7 Student Research Committee, Department of Modern Sciences & Technologies, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
8 Student Research Committee, Department of Modern Sciences & Technologies, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
doi
10.22038/apjmt.2015.3983چکیده
Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is the main cause of chronic liver disease across the world and can lead to fibrosis and cirrhosis. The etiopathogenesis of ALD is related to ethanol-induced oxidative stress, glutathione reduction, abnormal methionine metabolism, malnutrition, and production of endotoxins that activate Kupffer cells. Curcumin is an active ingredient of the rhizome of turmeric. The substance is shown to have minor adverse effects. As the substance possess low bioavailability in free formulation, different strategies has been conducted to improve its bioavailability which resulted in production of nanomiscels and nanoparticles. Curcumin can provide protection for the liver against toxic effects of alcohol use. Several studies showed curcumin blocks endotoxin-mediated activation of NF-κB and suppresses the expression of cytokines, chemokines, COX-2, and iNOS in Kupffer cells. According to the molecular studies, curcumin inhibits NF-κB signaling pathway, regulates cytokines production and modulates immune response. It has been shown that curcumin can suppress gene expression, especially cytokines genes resulting in down-regulation of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin 1 (IL-1), IL-6, IL-8, adhesion molecules (ICAM, VCAM) and C-reactive protein. Hence, curcumin can have therapeutic effects on the majority of chronic inflammatory diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, ALD, fatty liver, and allergy.
