Therapeutic and Protective Effects of Piperine and Its Combination with Curcumin, As A Bioenhancer, Against Aluminum-Induced Damage in The Astrocyte Cells

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic and protective effects of piperine and its combination with curcumin on reactive primary astrocyte cells and whether the bioavailability of curcumin increases when piperine is used together with it (synergistic effect). Recently, studies with astrocyte cells have attracted attention to neurodegeneration pathologies caused by aluminum exposure. In particular, it has become common to study the potential of herbal therapeutic agents to inhibit the effect of aluminum. This study investigated whether piperine, curcumin, and the synergistic effect of these two components have therapeutic and protective effects against aluminum in primary isolated astrocyte cells. In order to examine the protective effect, compounds at specific concentrations were applied to the cells before the aluminum application, and for the therapeutic effect, the effectiveness of the compounds was examined after the aluminum application. The efficacy of therapeutic agents individually and synergistically on aluminum exposure was analyzed in terms of cell viability, apoptosis, necrosis, and cytokine release. As a result, the obtained data showed that the % cell viability of different concentrations of piperine, curcumin and combined use of them on aluminum-induced damage in astrocyte cells were significantly higher in both the protective and therapeutic effect groups compared to the negative control. At the same time, a decrease in the number of apoptotic and necrotic cells was observed as a result of both Acridine orange and propidium iodide and TUNEL staining. The results of IL-6 and TGF-ß cytokine analysis also showed a decrease, which showed the importance of the synergistic effect of these two compounds. Considering all these results, it is the first time in the literature that the bioavailability-enhancing feature of piperine on curcumin has been demonstrated in terms of aluminum damage in astrocyte cells.