Therapeutic Effect of Curcumin and Methylprednisolone in the Rat Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

In addition to imperiling an individual's daily life, spinal cord injury (SCI), a catastrophic medical damage, can permanently impair an individual's body function. Methylprednisolone (MP), a medically accepted therapeutic drug for SCI, is highly controversial for the lack of consensus on its true therapeutic effect. In recent years, curcumin has served as a potential and novel therapeutic drug in SCI. Our study was intended to investigate the precise effect of MP and curcumin in SCI. We examined the function of MP and curcumin in a SCI model rat, both in vivo and in vitro, and found that there was a momentous improvement in Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan scores in the MP-treated group when compared with Cur-treated group within 14 days. Results obtained from the histological, immunohistochemistry and ultrastructural examinations evidenced the curative effect of MP was better than curcumin before Day 14. Nonetheless, there was a significant variation in the treatment effect between the MP-treated and Cur-treated groups after 14 days. The curcumin's effectiveness was more obvious than MP after 14 days following SCI. As such, we surmise that curcumin has a better therapeutic potential than MP with a prolong treatment time in the wake of SCI. Anat Rec, 301:686-696, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Resveratrol treatment of spinal cord injury in rat model

“…We previously reported curcumin to have a better therapeutic potential than MP with prolong treatment time between 14 and 35 days following SCI (Liu et al, ). These natural substances seem to have a promising therapeutic potential in SCI.…”

“…MP has been evinced to reduce neuroinflammation and relieve SCI complications associated with the mechanisms of secondary injury. However, the use of MP is highly controversial owing to non-reproducibility of its beneficial effects as well as unwanted side effects (Evaniew et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2017;Shroff & Gupta, 2015). The American Association of Neurological Surgeons in their guidelines no longer recommend MP usage for the management of acute SCI (Cabrera-Aldana et al, 2017).…”

Curcumin: Analysis and Stability

“…Curcumin, (1E,6E)-1,7-bis(4-hydroxy-3methoxyphenyl)hepta-1,6-diene-3,5-dionealso known as diferuloylmethane Figure 1, is a phenolic compound 1 present in many kinds of medicinal plants, especially in Curcuma longa (turmeric) 2 , and was first discovered and isolated in 1815 by Harvard College laboratory scientists Vogel and Pelletier 3 . The first article referring to the use of Curcumin in human diseases was published in 1937 4 .Curcumin possesses many pharmacological activities including antioxidant, anti-infection, anti-inflammation, anti-Alzheimer and anticancer [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] . Curcumin is a special spice which is the functional ingredient in curry powder 19 , and a potential natural food coloring 20 ; it impairs an attractive yellowish-orange color to food, authorized as a food additive by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) in 1974, it's E number is E 100 21 .…”

Beneficial Effects of Resveratrol-Mediated Inhibition of the mTOR Pathway in Spinal Cord Injury

“…It is worth noting that all these stages possess certain therapeutic effects. In our precursory study, curcumin was found to have the capability of serving as a future therapeutic for SCI [ 8 ]. It is worth noting that one of the chief targets in SCI treatment is to improve the microenvironment and promote the regeneration of the injured site.…”