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eCAM Advance Access originally published online on April 23, 2007
eCAM 2007 4(2):181-190; doi:10.1093/ecam/nem043
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© 2007 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Review

Curcumin in Cell Death Processes: A Challenge for CAM of Age-Related Pathologies

S. Salvioli1,2, E. Sikora3, E. L. Cooper4 and C. Franceschi1,2,5

1Department of Experimental Pathology and Centro Interdipartimentale "L. Galvani", University of Bologna, via S. Giacomo 12, 40126 Bologna, Italy, 2ER-GenTech laboratory, via Saragat 1, 44100 Ferrara, Italy, 3Department of Cellular Biochemistry, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, 3 Pasteura St., 02-093 Warsaw, Poland, 4Laboratory of Comparative Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurobiology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles California 90095-1763 and 5I.N.R.C.A., Department of Gerontological Sciences, via Birarelli 8, 60121 Ancona, Italy

Curcumin, the yellow pigment from the rhizoma of Curcuma longa, is a widely studied phytochemical which has a variety of biological activities: anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative. In this review we discuss the biological mechanisms and possible clinical effects of curcumin treatment on cancer therapy, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease, with particular attention to the cell death processes induced by curcumin. Since oxidative stress and inflammation are major determinants of the aging process, we also argue that curcumin can have a more general effect that slows down the rate of aging. Finally, the effects of curcumin can be described as xenohormetic, since it activates a sort of stress response in mammalian cells.

Keywords: aging – apoptosis – cancer – curcumin – neurodegenerative diseases – xenohormesis

For reprints and all correspondence: Prof. Claudio Franceschi, Department of Experimental Pathology and Centro Interdipartimentale "L. Galvani", University of Bologna, via S. Giacomo 12, 40126 Bologna, Italy. E-mail: claudio.franceschi{at}unibo.it

Received October 11, 2006; accepted March 24, 2007


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