Curcumin Compound Has Neuroprotective Effects

LA JOLLA, Calif.Researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies developed a synthetic derivative of curcumin (CNB-001), which has been shown in new animal studies to improve the behavioral and molecular deficits seen in ischemic stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI). While ischemic stroke and TBI are common causes of disability and death in the U.S. population, there are no clinically documented treatments for TBI, and only one FDA-approved treatment for stroke, which is only effective in about 20 percent of cases.

The scientists at the Salk Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory originally developed CNB-001 from curcumin, a compound found in turmeric, after finding in a series of in vitro assays that it had highly neuroprotective effects, and could enhance memory in normal animals. The Salk group then worked cooperatively with teams from Cedars-Sinai and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) to examine the impact of CNB-001 on stroke and TBI, respectively.

In the first trial, published in the Journal of Neurochemistry (ePub 2 Dec 2010. Jan 2011;116(1)122-31. DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-4159.2010.07090.x), Paul Lapchak, Ph.D., from Cedars-Sinai, collaborated with Salks David R. Schubert, Ph.D., and team, examining the effect of CNB-001 in an animal model of stroke. They reported CNB-001 was at least as effective as the FDA-approved stroke treatment in preventing behavioral deficits caused by stroke. In addition, unlike TPA, CNB-001 directly protects nerve cells within the brain, maintaining specific cell signaling pathways required for nerve cell survival.

In the second trial, Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, Ph.D., and his team at UCLA used a rodent model of TBI to demonstrate CNB-001 dramatically reversed the behavioral deficits in both locomotion and memory that accompany the brain injury. It was also seen to maintain the critical signaling pathways required for nerve cell survival, and the connections between nerve cells lost with TBI. The study is due to be published in Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair in early 2011.