Curcumin ameliorates experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in a C57BL/6 mouse model

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a common inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. Although the exact etiology of the disease is largely unknown, it is identified that cytokines may play an important role in the pathogenesis of MS. In this study, the effects of curcumin has been investigated on the expression levels of selected cytokine coding genes as well as the extent of demyelination in the corpus callosum of C57BL/6 experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model of MS. Gene expression analyses revealed that treatment with curcumin could lead to a significant reduction in the expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine coding genes including IL-6 (p = 0.001), IL-17 (p = 0.001), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α (p = 0.008), and interferon (IFN)-γ (p = 0.033) as well as a significant increase in the expression level of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β (p = 0.006) as an anti-inflammatory cytokine. Moreover, the expression of glutathione peroxidase (GPX)-1 gene and the activity of anti-oxidant enzymes were significantly higher (p < 0.001) in curcumin-treated mice. Luxol fast blue staining also confirmed a significant reduction in the extent of demyelination in the curcumin-treated group (p < 0.001). Our results have confirmed that curcumin is an effective therapeutic agent that could ameliorate the severity of EAE.