title: Potential protection of curcumin against amyloid beta-induced toxicity on cultured rat prefrontal cortical neurons.
abstract: The present study explored the effect of curcumin against amyloid beta (Abeta)-induced toxicity on cultured rat primary prefrontal cortical neurons. The results showed that administration of 10 microM of curcumin induced significantly protection against 20 microM of Abeta(25-35)-induced toxicity on the cultured rat primary prefrontal cortical neurons tested by MTT and TUNEL assays. We further examined the involvements of the apoptotic or anti-apoptotic proteins in curcumin protection against Abeta(25-35)-induced cytotoxicity on cultured neurons and found that the content of apoptotic protein caspase-3 was increased and the content of anti-apoptotic factor Bcl2 was decreased significantly after Abeta(25-35) treatments, while administration of curcumin significantly inhibited the Abeta(25-35)-induced increases in the content of caspase-3 and inhibited the Abeta(25-35)-induced decreases in the content of Bcl2 tested by Western blot. The results suggest that curcumin protects cultured rat primary prefrontal cortical neurons against Abeta-induced cytotoxicity, and both Bcl2 and caspase-3 are involved in the curcumin-induced protective effects.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Biotechnology and State Key Laboratory of Chinese Ethnic Minority Traditional Medicine, College of Life and Environmental Science, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China. yulc@pku.edu.cn
authors.forename: Xiao-Yan
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Long-Chuan
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000502:physiology* / Q000633:toxicity; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D017209:Apoptosis; D053148:Caspase 3 / Q000378:metabolism; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003474:Curcumin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000502:physiology* / Q000633:toxicity; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000166:cytology*; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; C074636:amyloid beta-protein (25-35); D053148:Caspase 3; D003474:Curcumin