Academia Sinica researchers have discovered that curcumin derivatives, which are commonly found in Indian cuisine such as curries and turmeric rice, can help prevent Alzheimer’s disease, overturning a common assumption that it is curcumin itself that prevents the disease.
India has a relatively lower incidence rate of Alzheimer’s, with people four times less likely to get the disease than in the US, Academia Sinica associate research fellow Rita Pei-yeh Chen (陳佩燁) said on Tuesday.
The popular assumption is it is curcumin — a major component of turmeric, which is commonly added to food in India — that makes Indians less susceptible to the disease, Chen said.
However, a team led by Chen found that polyhydroxycurcuminoids, a type of curcumin derivative, may be useful in preventing Alzheimer’s.
The disease is characterized by neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques in the brain. Senile plaques are mainly composed of amyloid-beta peptides that are produced in the brain during protein catabolism, Chen said.
Polyhydroxycurcuminoids can boost the activity of neprilysin, an enzyme that degrades amyloid beta, thereby preventing the formation of senile plaques, she said.
Neprilysin activity and performance decreases with age, and if the rate of amyloid beta production exceeds its rate of degradation, amyloid beta can accumulate in the brain and form senile plaques, resulting in the death of neurons.
The team designed a highly sensitive neprilysin detection system to screen 25 curcumin compounds for their ability to increase neprilysin activity, and results from its tests in mice and cell models indicated that polyhydroxycurcuminoids — and not curcumin itself — upregulated neprilysin activity.
Curcumin has very poor solubility and bioavailability, and it has little effect to simulate neprilysin activity.
“Scientists have focused their research on the potential health effect of curcumin, and the team’s results might provide a new promising strategy in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease,” she said.
“Although the amount of polyhydroxycurcuminoids in turmeric is limited, daily consumption of turmeric might have helped prevent Alzheimer’s among Indians,” she said.
Instead of deliberately eating turmeric, adopting a balanced diet is more practical for Taiwanese, she said.
As of 2013, there were more than 190,000 people with Alzheimer’s disease in Taiwan, she said.
Since the average life expectancy after diagnosis with Alzheimer’s varies from four to 20 years, medical and non-medical care for Alzheimer’s patients can lead to significant economic and social burden.
The team has acquired patents and has been approached by pharmaceutical companies to develop new medicines, she said.
The research was published in the academic journal Scientific Reports last month.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
RSS