Curcumin protects against aging-related stress and dysfunction through autophagy activation in rat brain

• Published in: Molecular biology reports Vol. 51; no. 1; p. 694
• Main Authors: Singh, Akanksha, Yadawa, Arun Kumar, Rizvi, Syed Ibrahim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-12-2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aging; Aging - drug effects; Animal Anatomy; Animal Biochemistry; Animals; Antioxidants; Antioxidants - pharmacology; Autophagy; Autophagy - drug effects; Beclin-1 - genetics; Beclin-1 - metabolism; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Brain - drug effects; Brain - metabolism; Brain - pathology; Curcumin; Curcumin - pharmacology; Dietary restrictions; Electron transport chain; Galactose; Galactose - pharmacology; Gene expression; Genes; Histology; Homeostasis; Life Sciences; Male; Medicinal plants; Mitochondria - drug effects; Mitochondria - metabolism; Morphology; Neuroprotection; Neuroprotective Agents - pharmacology; Original Article; Oxidative stress; Oxidative Stress - drug effects; Polymerase chain reaction; Rats; RNA-directed DNA polymerase; Senescence; Sirtuin 1 - genetics; Sirtuin 1 - metabolism; Tumor necrosis factor-α; Aging; Neuroprotection; Curcumin; D-galactose; Autophagy; Caloric restriction mimetics
• ISSN: 0301-4851; 1573-4978
• DOI: 10.1007/s11033-024-09639-7

Background
Curcumin (
Curcuma longa
) is a well-known medicinal plant that induces autophagy in various model species, helping maintain cellular homeostasis. Its role as a caloric restriction mimetic (CRM) is being investigated. This study explores the potential of curcumin (CUR), as a CRM, to provide neuroprotection in D galactose induced accelerated senescence model of rats through modulation of autophagy. For six weeks, male rats received simultaneous supplementation of D-gal (300 mg/kg b.w., subcutaneously) and CUR (200 mg/kg b.w., oral).
Method and results
The oxidative stress indices, antioxidants, and electron transport chain complexes in brain tissues were measured using standard methods. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) gene expression analysis was used to evaluate the expression of autophagy, neuroprotection, and aging marker genes. Our results show that curcumin significantly (
p
 ≤ 0.05) enhanced the level of antioxidants and considerably lowered the level of oxidative stress markers. Supplementing with CUR also increased the activity of electron transport chain complexes in the mitochondria of aged brain tissue, demonstrating the antioxidant potential of CUR at the mitochondrial level. CUR was found to upregulate the expression of the aging marker gene (SIRT-1) and the genes associated with autophagy (Beclin-1 and ULK-1), as well as neuroprotection (NSE) in the brain. The expression of IL-6 and TNF-α was downregulated.
Conclusion
Our findings demonstrate that CUR suppresses oxidative damage brought on by aging by modulating autophagy. These findings imply that curcumin might be beneficial for neuroprotection in aging and age-related disorders.