Response to Mancuso et al.: Curcumin and Alzheimer Disease: This Marriage Is Not to Be Performed
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: This is a response to a letter by Mancuso et al. (1)
In response to Mancuso et al. (1), we would like to clarify that in our report we did not propose the therapeutic use of curcumin, itself, to treat Alzheimer disease. We first summarized previous studies that considered curcumin as a potential therapeutic for various disorders. Then we set out to determine the mechanism of action by which curcumin ameliorated Alzheimer disease pathology in previously reported transgenic mouse studies. In our study, we showed that curcumin decreased Aβ levels by increasing the retention of immature amyloid-β precursor protein (APP) in the ER and simultaneously attenuating APP endocytosis from the plasma membrane. With regard to implications for the treatment of AD, we stated in the final sentence of our paper: “Collectively, our data, together with the previously published in vivo data, suggest that curcumin and its derivatives may prove useful in the search for small molecule pharmacological agents for the effective treatment and prevention of AD-related β-amyloid pathology.” In other words, we proposed that novel small molecules could be guided by our results with curcumin to potentially treat AD via the same mechanism of action that we described. Along these lines, we are currently in the process of testing curcumin-derived small molecules with the hope of identifying compounds that are safe, can enter the brain, and efficaciously lower brain Aβ levels.
Source: Journal of Biological Chemistry
Authors: Can Zhang, Rudolph E. Tanzi
Language: English
Subfield: Physiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,430
OpenAlex ID: W2067734380