The yellow spice turmeric has shown potential as a weapon against malaria, HIV and the virus that triggers cervical cancer, according to reports on SciDev.Net, the Science and Development Network website.
The latest findings are of significance to developing countries where malaria and HIV are serious public health concerns, and which bear 80% of the global burden of cervical cancer. India alone has a third of the world’s cervical-cancer cases.
Earlier studies had confirmed the anti-microbial, anti-tumour and anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric’s main component, curcumin.
Scientists at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and the University of Michigan Medical School in the United States showed that curcumin inhibits drug-resistant forms of plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes cerebral malaria.
When they fed curcumin to mice infected with Plasmodium bergheii, a related parasite that causes rodent malaria, the number of parasites in the mice’s blood fell by 80% to 90%.
In tests, curcumin completely protected up to 29% of infected mice, say the scientists.
“Curcumin may offer a novel treatment for malarial infection,” says Govindrajan Padmanabhan, scientist emeritus at the Indian Institute of Science and one of the authors of the research, published in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.
In a separate study, Bhupesh Prusty and Bhudev Das of the Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology in New Delhi reported that curcumin could help prevent cervical cancer, which is associated with the human papilloma virus, in 90% of the cases.
The virus has two key genes that bind to a protein in normal human cells to make the cells cancerous. Curcumin binds with the same human protein, preventing the virus from doing so, say the researchers in the International Journal of Cancer.
In laboratory studies, two hours after the scientists introduced curcumin to infected cells, the viral genes began to unbind from the human protein.
Human trials soon
Das told SciDev.Net that his institute is planning to start human trials in two or three months. A capsule containing curcumin will be inserted into the vagina of women infected with the human papilloma virus, daily for three to four weeks.
The capsule dissolves slowly, releasing the curcumin powder, which will eventually be expelled in the urine.
In a further demonstration of turmeric’s potential to help tackle killer diseases, when scientists at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore fed curcumin to HIV-infected cells in the laboratory, the virus stopped replicating. They say curcumin could be used to help formulate a combination of drugs to treat HIV infection.
Tapas Kundu, associate professor at the Bangalore centre, told SciDev.Net that curcumin stops an enzyme called p300 from performing its normal role of controlling the activity of human genes. Because HIV integrates itself into human genetic material, when p300 stops working, the virus can no longer multiply.
Kundu believes the same mechanism could explain curcumin’s other anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.
The enzyme belongs to a class called histone acetylase transferase enzymes, which scientists hope could lead them to treatments for a variety of cancers, asthma and neurological disorders. The findings were reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. — SciDev.Net
Read more about these issues in the HIV/Aids quick guide and indigenous knowledge dossier available free online at SciDev.Net