Review Article

Effects of Curcumin on Aging: Molecular Mechanisms and Experimental Evidence

Table 1

Antiaging effect of curcumin.

CompoundAnimal modelEffectReference

Curcumin(i) Aged female Wistar rats(i) Decreasing the MDA and LPO levels in brain tissue[109]
Curcumin (20, 40, and 80 μM)(i) Aging RPE cells(i) Improvement of cell viability
(ii) Reducing the apoptosis and OS
(iii) Decreasing the expression of apoptosis-related proteins and OS biomarkers
[92]
Curcumin (0.2%)(i) Male Sprague Dawley rats
(ii) UCP2 knockout (UCP2-/-)
(iii) Matched wild-type mice
(i) Restoring the impaired cerebrovascular endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation
(ii) Promoting eNOS and AMPK phosphorylation
(iii) Overexpression of UCP2 and reduction of ROS generation
[103]
Curcumin (0.2%)(i) Male C57BL/6N mice(i) Ameliorates age-associated large elastic artery stiffening
(ii) Improvement of NO-mediated vascular endothelial dysfunction
(iii) Oxidative stress
(iv) Decreasing the collagen I and AGEs in the arterial wall
[87]
Curcumin (100 μM)(i) Wild-type Canton-S flies(i) Protective effect against radiation damage
(ii) Decrement of the amount of protein carbonylation and γH2Ax foci
[142]
Curcumin (100, 200, and 400 mg/kg BW)(i) Female Wistar albino rats(i) Increased the NO and MDA levels[3]
Curcumin (50 mg/kg)(i) Adult and aging male C57BL/6 mice(i) Modulation of hippocampal redox status
(ii) Restoring aging-related loss of synapse input specificity of HFS-LTP
[110]
Curcumin (50 and 100 mg/kg)(i) Male Sprague Dawley rats(i) Improving the spatial learning and memory
(ii) Alleviating pathological change
(iii) Reduction of the level of MDA
(iv) Increment of the activity of SOD
(v) Inducing HO-1 protein expression
(vi) Increasing the protein levels of UCP2
(vii) Inhibiting OS induced by ischemia
[167]
PE859(i) SAMP8(i) Inhibition of Aβ aggregation
(ii) Amelioration of cognitive dysfunction
(iii) Decrements of the amount of aggregated Aβ and tau
[158]
Curcumin (5 to 100 μM)(i) HUVECs(i) Mitigated the H2O2-induced endothelial premature senescence
(ii) Decrements of population of senescence-related β-galactosidase-positive cells
(iii) Motivating cell division
(iv) Dwindling RNA amplification of senescence-related protein p21, OS, and apoptosis
(v) Induction of the expression of the phosphorylation of eNOS
(vi) Increments of the amount of NO
(vii) Stimulation of the transcription, translation, and enzymatic activity of Sirt1
[159]
Piperine (12 mg/kg)+curcumin (40 mg/kg)(i) Adult male Wistar rats(i) Improvement of spatial memory and serotoninergic signaling
(ii) Decrements of OS and lipofuscin deposition
(iii) Higher hippocampal volume
(iv) Hippocampal neuroprotection
(v) Promotion of cognition
(vi) Inhibition of senescence by the free radical quenching
[153]
Curcumin (50 mg/kg)(i) SAMP8 mice(i) Narrowing the hippocampal SOD activities
(ii) Elevation of the amount of p-CaMKII in the stratum lucidum of hippocampal CA3 and p-NMDAR1 in the hippocampal membrane
[156]
Curcumin (0 to 500 mM)(i) Two strains of Drosophila (Canton-S and Ives flies)(i) Protection against oxidative stress
(ii) Improvement in locomotion
(iii) Modulating the expression of different aging-associated genes, including mth, Thor, InR, and JNK
[139]
Curcumin (0 to 200 mM)(i) Normal-lived Ra strain (Drosophila)(i) Induction of an extended longevity phenotype
(ii) Slowing the aging rate
(iii) Increases the adult animal’s geotactic activity
[144]
Curcumin (0.5 to 1.0 mg/g of diet)(i) Oregon-R strain (Drosophila)Overexpression of Mn-SOD and CuZn-SOD genes
(i) Downexpression of age-associated genes (dInR, ATTD, Def, CecB, and DptB)
(ii) Modulating the gene expression of SOD
(iii) Decrements of MDA and LPO
[143]
Galantamine (5 mg/kg) and curcumin (15 and 30 mg/kg)(i) Old male LACA mice(i) Postponing aging process
(ii) Improving cognitive functions, locomotor activity, and antioxidation
(iii) Decrements of acetylcholine esterase activity
(iv)Restoring the mitochondrial enzyme complex execution
[154]
Curcumin(i) Transgenic Drosophila(i) Increments of amyloid fibril conversion by decreasing the prefibrillar/oligomeric species of Aβ[148]
Curcumin and disulfiram/gram of media(i) Male D. melanogaster(ii) Promotion of SOD activity[168]