Curcumin in curry sauce treats Alzheimer's disease

• The pigment that gives curry spice its yellow hue may also be able to break up the "plaques" that mark the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients, early research suggests.
• Scientists found that curcumin, a component of the yellow curry spice turmeric, was able to reduce deposits of beta-amyloid proteins in the brains of elderly lab mice that ate curcumin as part of their diets.
• In addition, when the researchers added low doses of curcumin to human beta-amyloid proteins in a test tube, the compound kept the proteins from aggregating and blocked the formation of the amyloid fibers that make up Alzheimer's plaques.
• The new findings suggest that curcumin could be capable of both treating Alzheimer's and lowering a person's risk of developing the disease, said study co-author Dr. Gregory M. Cole of the University of California Los Angeles and the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.
• Cole and his colleagues have gotten funding to begin a small trial in humans suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
• The current findings, published online recently by the Journal of Biological Chemistry, add to the body of research pointing to curcumin's medicinal value.
• Long used as part of traditional Indian medicine, curcumin is now under study as a potential cancer therapy, and animal research has suggested the compound might serve as a treatment for multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis.
• Curcumin is structurally similar to a stain known as Congo red, which is used by pathologists to identify amyloid protein in autopsied brain tissue in order to confirm a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease after a patient's death.
• Curcumin can also stain amyloid deposits, Cole said, but it has the additional ability, when eaten or injected, to cross into a living animal's brain and bind to amyloid deposits.