Strategies for Improving Bioavailability, Bioactivity, and Physical-Chemical Behavior of Curcumin

Abstract

Curcumin (CCM) is one of the most frequently explored plant compounds with various biological actions such as antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antineoplastic, and antioxidant/anti-inflammatory properties. The laboratory data and clinical trials have demonstrated that the bioavailability and bioactivity of curcumin are influenced by the feature of the curcumin molecular complex types. Curcumin has a high capacity to form molecular complexes with proteins (such as whey proteins, bovine serum albumin, β-lactoglobulin), carbohydrates, lipids, and natural compounds (e.g., resveratrol, piperine, quercetin). These complexes increase the bioactivity and bioavailability of curcumin. The current review provides these derivatization strategies for curcumin in terms of biological and physico-chemical aspects with a strong focus on different type of proteins, characterization methods, and thermodynamic features of protein–curcumin complexes, and with the aim of evaluating the best performances. The current literature review offers, taking into consideration various biological effects of the CCM, a whole approach for CCM-biomolecules interactions such as CCM-proteins, CCM-nanomaterials, and CCM-natural compounds regarding molecular strategies to improve the bioactivity as well as the bioavailability of curcumin in biological systems.

Curcumin Has Beneficial Effects on Lysosomal Alpha-Galactosidase: Potential Implications for the Cure of Fabry Disease

“…These mainly concern human health and mostly refer to the improvement of common pathological conditions that include both mild or severe conditions. Molecular mechanisms have already been studied [ 5 , 21 ]. It is worth noting that the beneficial effects of curcumin on cardiac and kidney function have been associated with the direct action of the molecule on autophagy and inflammatory pathways [ 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 ].…”

“…The wide spectrum of biological activities makes curcumin a very unique and interesting molecule in the biomedical field [ 5 ]. For this reason, there is a large amount of literature in the field that will certainly benefit the Fabry community.…”

“…The long history of turmeric usage allowed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to classify curcumin as Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS). The wide spectrum of its biological activities justifies the interest of the scientific community in this unique and interesting molecule [ 5 ]. Many pathologies such as cancer and chronic diseases, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, autoimmune diseases, and rare diseases have been discovered to benefit from curcumin treatment, often in combination with other drugs [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”

“…The main issue associated with the clinical use of curcumin is its poor bioavailability. Given the high biomedical interest, great effort is being put in identifying new ways to improve this aspect using many different types of formulations [ 5 , 20 , 21 , 22 ].…”

Illustrating the Effect of Small Molecules Derived from Natural Resources on Amyloid Peptides

“…Although the small molecules discussed in this Perspective possess excellent anti-amyloid properties, it is challenging to convert these preclinical results into successful clinical studies due to the low bioavailability of these compounds. Hence, a number of methods have been employed to overcome this problem. − The application of nanotechnology has become a popular approach in the field of drug delivery and is used to decrease the size of the pure drug particle (nanocrystals, nanosuspensions), to generate nanoscale emulsion droplet systems which encapsulate and deliver drugs (nanoemulsions), and to produce carrier-based delivery systems (nanogels, polymer micelles, lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, dendrimers). Small molecules loaded with inorganic nanoparticles display higher biocompatibility, hydrophilicity, and loading capacity.…”