In many homes you will often find the deep golden orange turmeric in the spice cupboard to add colour and flavour to foods such as rice, bobotie and curries.
Despite its culinary benefits, turmeric, particularly its main compound curcumin, has been the subject of scientific studies — thanks to its medicinal properties, including its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits that had led to many using it as a supplement for joint pain, allergies, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and to slow down certain forms of cancer.
Among many studies that have been done on this plant by scientists across the world, is the one at Stellenbosch University that has been testing whether curcumin has the potential to stave off Parkinson’s Disease (PD), and reverse or cure the neurological damages it causes to those affected by it. Researchers have also been testing the compound’s role in gut-brain interaction.
The progressive brain disorder, which is caused by a loss of neurons in the substantia nigra, located in the midbrain and responsible for movement and the production of dopamine, has no cure. Its symptoms include tremor in hands, jaw and head, muscle stiffness and slowness in movement.
“Our studies are still in their very early stages, with tests so far only being done on cell lines and not even animal models yet,” said Prof Soraya Bardien, head of the Parkinson’s disease research group based at the university’s division of molecular biology and human genetics.
Bardien said there are many theories about how and where exactly in the body Parkinson’s disease starts, with the strongest of these suggesting that it starts either in the gut or brain. One thing her team knows for sure, though, is that the pathological hallmark of this PD is the build-up of toxic presynaptic alpha-synuclein — a neural protein in the gastrointestinal tract and the brain. These deposits, called Lewy bodies, affect chemicals in the brain that in turn lead to problems with thinking, movement and behaviour, ultimately resulting in neurodegenerative conditions such as PD.
At Stellenbosch University researchers are interested in testing whether curcumin can work like a magnet and bind to specific parts of alpha-synuclein and prevent the protein from building up in the body to the point of toxicity.
“A drawback is that curcumin is excreted quickly and in great quantities. This makes it difficult for the body to take up enough of this compound for it to be of any real value and target the brain cells that are lost in disorders like PD,” Bardien explained.
Two of her PhD students, Jessica Burns and Amy Buck, are investigating whether it is possible and helpful to cover curcumin granules with nanoparticles made from organic and biodegradable materials. Nanoparticles are very tiny structures that can be generated by natural processes or artificially made.
“The point of their work is to determine whether this technique will help slow down the excretion of curcumin, improve its crossing of the blood-brain barrier, or both — thereby boosting its ability to provide neuroprotection to people living with PD.”
Funded by the National Research Foundation and the South African Medical Research Council, the study, which started two years ago, is part of a collaborative project with the University of the Western Cape.
“It will take several years to yield research results that can be taken to people living with PD. Once we have promising results, that is, the curcumin prevents the cells from dying when they are placed under oxidative stress, the next step would be to test it on an animal models before it could be tested on humans.”
Another research Bardien’s research team is excited about is an international research project, the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2), which will genotype more than 150,000 participants from across the world and integrate genetic data to expand and better understand the genetic architecture of PD.
Last January SA sent close to 1,500 DNA samples to the GP2 for genotyping and sequencing, which came back during the year for further analysis by young researchers from Stellenbosch University.
“Funding in South Africa for PD research is very limited, given all the infectious and cardiovascular diseases we have. We’ve never been able to do sequencing of the whole human genome, in search of possible new variations specific to our unique South African population,” said Bardien who described the project as a “game-changer” in PD research.
“This work will tell us whether the South African individuals we study have a genetic cause or not. It is a game-changer because through GP2 we will know whether PD globally has a significant genetic component. At the moment we don’t know if PD has a larger environmental or a larger genetic component or a combination of the two.”
“GP2’s work is a game-changer because they are focusing on individuals of non-European ancestry ... from Africa, South America and Asia and they are designing new data analysis tools to analyse these non-European genomes.”
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