Turmeric-based drug effective on Alzheimer flies Curcumin, a
substance extracted from turmeric, prolongs life and enhances
activity of fruit flies with a nervous disorder similar to
Alzheimer’s disease. The study conducted at Linköping
University, indicates that it is the initial stages of fibril
formation and fragments of the amyloid fibrils that are most
toxic to neurons. Ina Caesar as the lead author, has published
the results of the study in the prestigious journal PLoS One.
For several years curcumin has been studied as a possible drug
candidate to combat Alzheimer's disease, which is characterized
by the accumulation of sticky amyloid-beta and Tau protein
fibres. Linköping researchers wanted to investigate how the
substance affected transgenic fruit flies (Drosophila
melanogaster), which developed evident Alzheimer's symptoms. The
fruit fly is increasingly used as a model for neurodegenerative
diseases. Five different groups of diseased flies with different
genetic manipulations were administered curcum