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Journal of Thai Traditional & Alternative Medicine Vol. 7 No. 2 May-August (Supplement) 2009 ¯˜

OP-26

Curcumin and Innate Immunity: a new role for infectious inflammation treat-

ment

Ratchaneeya Netirat, Volaluck Supajatura,

Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand

Rationale: Curcumin, the principal curcuminoid found in Curcuma longa has anti-inflammatory activity
by inhibition of a number of different molecules that involve in non-septic inflammation. Anyhow there is still
no evidence of efficacy of curcumin on in vitro phagocytosis or controlled in vivo trial in septic inflammatory
conditions.
Objective: To study the effects of curcumin on phagocytosis, and inflammatory cells migration and pro-
inflammatory cytokines production upon septic infection.
Methodology: Human leucocytes were cultured with Candida albicans, supplemented with various con-
centrations of curcumin, and incubate at various times. Then the percentage of phagocytosis (% Pg) and
phagocytic index (PI) were determined. In in vivo study, BALB/c mice were treated with various concentration
of curcumin, 5 mice in each group. Mice were fed with curcumin-mixed drinking water available ad libitum for
2 weeks, or peritoneal administration of curcumin 5 minutes, before cecal ligation and puncture-induced acute
septic peritonitis were done. After 4 hrs, the peritoneal fluid were harvested. The number of inflammatory cells
migration was evaluated and pro-inflammatory cytokines, TNFα, IL-6 and IL-1β were measured by ELISA.
Results: In control human phagocytes, phagocytosis of C. albicans was dramatically increased with time
and reached a maximum at 30 min-incubation. When supplementation with curcumin (1-100 μM), the %Pg and
PI were decreased in dose and time dependent manner, significantly at 15, 30 and 60 min ( p ≤ 0.01). In in vivo
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acute septic peritonitis, within 4 hours, the large number of leucocytes (x, 4,023 vs 1,304 cell/mm in normal),
particularly neutrophils (x, 89.3 % vs 0% in normal) were recruited into peritoneal cavity, together with an
increase of TNFα (x, 207.9 vs 2.8 ng/ml in normal), IL-6 (x, 773.2 vs 9.2 pg/ml in normal), and IL-1β (x, 219.5 vs
25.3 pg/ml in normal) production. The reciprocal results were observed in the presence of curcumin in a dose
dependent manner. Similarly, in oral (10, 50, 100 μg/ml) and peritoneal (300 μl of 50, 100, 200 μg/ml) curcumin-
treated groups, the total number of leucocytes at different curcumin concentrations were 4,137, 2,573*, 1,637*
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cell/mm and 4,574, 3,851, 3,028* cell/mm , respectively. Among those leucocytes, the percentage of neutrophils
were 67.2, 53.5*, 46.6* and 38.5*, 20.6*, 5.4* respectively. In parallel with the reduction of leucocytes in curcumin-
oral treated groups, the level of cytokines production was also gradually decline. The means of TNFα were
201.3, 145.25*, 75.1* ng/ml, IL-6 were 763.3, 487.3*, 170.5* pg/ml and IL-1β were 186.2, 147.8*, 75.9* pg/ml
respectively (*p ≤ 0.01).
Conclusion: Both studies in vitro and in vivo administration of curcumin indicated that curcumin could
inhibit neutrophils recruitment and pro-inflammatory cytokines production. The anti-inflammatory activities
appear to mediate through the inhibition of phagocytosis and migration of neutrophils to the site of infection.
In fact, inflammation not only harmful to microbes, but also damage to host tissue, especially in expanding
inflamed condition. Our finding suggested that in certain circumstance such as infectious inflammation, treat-
ment with curcumin may have a beneficial in relieving severity of symptoms caused by neutrophils.