Curcumin: From Ancient Spice to Modern Anti-Viral Drug in COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Fazli Subhan National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi
  • Atif Ali Khan Khalil National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi
  • Muhammad Zeeshan National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi
  • Adnan Haider NUMS
  • Isfahan Tauseef Hazara University Mansehra, Khyber Pakhthunkha
  • Syed Kashif Haleem Hazara University Mansehra, Khyber Pakhthunkha
  • Ahmed Saadi Ibrahim College of Engineering, Dhofar University, Oman
Keywords: Curcumin, COVID-19, Cell Signaling, Inflammation, SARS

Abstract

A viral disease such as COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease-2019) is a major health problem and worsens the complications of various diseases including cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes, and cancers. The current study summarises the therapeutic progress and efficacy of curcumin for the cure and prevention of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and SARS-related COVID-19. Curcumin is extracted from the herb Curcuma longa L., known for its various therapeutic functions such as anti-inflammatory, anti-obesity and anti- cancer activities. Very little is known about its therapeutic importance for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 infections and complications. Curcumin has the ability to interact with spike protein or ACE2 protein in COVID-19-induced signal transduction pathway. Curcumin also suppresses several important signaling pathways in viral infection such as the well-known transcription factors including NF-kB, STAT-3, Wnt/β-catenin, Nrf2, p38/MAPK. Curcumin inhibit virus-induced inflammation by modulating the manifestation of various factors such as IL-10, IL-8, IL-6, TNF-α/β, and COX-2 in COVID-19 diseases. The modulation of multiple molecular targets by treatment with curcumin and anti-inflammatory effects of curcumin make it an ideal candidate phytochemical for the treatment of SARS and SARS-related COVID-19.

References

He Y, Yue Y, Zheng X, Zhang K, Chen S, Du Z. Curcumin, inflammation, and chronic diseases: how are they linked?. Molecules. 2015; 20: 9183-13.

Amalraj A, Pius A, Gopi S, Gopi S. Biological activities of curcuminoids, other biomolecules from turmeric and their derivatives–A review. Journal of traditional and complementary medicine. 2017; 7: 205-33.

Altıntoprak N, Kar M, Acar M, Berkoz M, Muluk NB, Cingi C. Antioxidant activities of curcumin in allergic rhinitis. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2016; 273: 3765-73.

Basu P, Dutta S, Begum R, Mittal S, Dutta PD, Bharti AC, et al. Clearance of cervical human papillomavirus infection by topical application of curcumin and curcumin containing polyherbal cream: a phase II randomized controlled study. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2013; 14: 5753-9.

Choi YH, Han DH, Kim SW, Kim MJ, Sung HH, Jeon HG, et al. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the role of curcumin in prostate cancer patients with intermittent androgen deprivation. Prostate. 2019; 79: 614-21.

GRAS Notice (GRN) No. 822, https://www.fda.gov/food/ generally-recognized-safe-gras/gras-notice-inventory. 2018.

Karimian MS, Pirro M, Johnston TP, Majeed M, Sahebkar A. Curcumin and Endothelial Function: Evidence and Mechanisms of Protective Effects. Curr Pharm Des. 2017; 23: 2462-73.

Chin KY. The spice for joint inflammation: anti-inflammatory role of curcumin in treating osteoarthritis. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2016; 10: 3029-42.

Farhood B, Mortezaee K, Goradel NH, Khanlarkhani N, Salehi E, Nashtaei MS, et al. Curcumin as an anti- inflammatory agent: Implications to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. J Cell Physiol. 2019; 234: 5728-40.

MaF,LiuF,DingL,YouM,YueH,ZhouY,etal.Anti- inflammatory effects of curcumin are associated with down regulating microRNA-155 in LPS-treated macrophages and mice. Pharm Biol. 2017; 55: 1263-73.

Drion CM, van Scheppingen J, Arena A, Geijtenbeek KW, Kooijman L, van Vliet EA, et al. Effects of rapamycin and curcumin on inflammation and oxidative stress in vitro and in vivo - in search of potential anti-epileptogenic strategies for temporal lobe epilepsy. J Neuroinflammation. 2018; 15: 212.

Qureshi M, Al-Suhaimi EA, Wahid F, Shehzad O, Shehzad A. "Therapeutic potential of curcumin for multiple sclerosis." Neurological Sciences. 2017; 39: 207-14.

Hosseini SA, Zand H, Cheraghpour M. The Influence of Curcumin on the Downregulation of MYC, Insulin and IGF-1 Receptors: A possible Mechanism Underlying the Anti- Growth and Anti-Migration in Chemoresistant Colorectal Cancer Cells. Medicina (Kaunas). 2019; 55: 90.

Sung B, Prasad S, Yadav VR, Aggarwal BB. Cancer cell signaling pathways targeted by spice-derived

nutraceuticals. Nutrition and cancer. 2012; 64: 173–97.

Shehzad A, Islam SU, Lee J, Lee YS. Prostaglandin E2 reverses curcumin-induced inhibition of survival signal transduction pathways in human colorectal carcinoma (HCT-15) cell lines. Molecules and Cells. 2014; 37: 899-906.

Bolat ZB, Islek Z, Demir BN, Yilmaz EN, Sahin F, Ucisik MH. Curcumin- and Piperine-Loaded Emulsomes as Combinational Treatment Approach Enhance the Anticancer Activity of Curcumin on HCT116 Colorectal Cancer Model. Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology. 2020; 8: 50.

Shehzad A, Ha T, Subhan F, Lee YS. New mechanisms and the anti-inflammatory role of curcumin in obesity and obesity-related metabolic diseases. Eur J Nutr. 2011; 50: 151–61.

Parsamanesh N, Moossavi M, Bahrami A, Butler AE, Sahebkar A. Therapeutic potential of curcumin in diabetic complications. Pharmacol Res. 2014; 2014.

Zorofchian Moghadamtousi S, Abdul Kadir H, Hassandarvish P, Tajik H, Abubakar S, Zandi K. A review on antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal activity of curcumin. BioMed research international. 2014; 2014.

Chowdhury R, Maranas CD. Biophysical characterization of the SARS-CoV2 spike protein binding with the ACE2 receptor explains increased COVID-19 pathogenesis. BioRxiv. 2020.

Yang X, Zhao H, Li Y, Zhang P. "Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 in coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Evidence from bioinformatics analysis." (2020).

Mahmudpour M, Roozbeh J, Keshavarz M, Farrokhi S, Nabipour I. COVID-19 cytokine storm: The anger of inflammation. Cytokine. 2020; 30: 155151.

Hu B, Huang S, Yin L. The cytokine storm and COVID-19. Journal of medical virology. 2020.

Pearce L, Davidson SM, Yellon DM. The cytokine storm of COVID-19: a spotlight on prevention and protection. Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets. 2020; 28: 1-8.

Ye Q, Wang B, Mao J. "The pathogenesis and treatment of theCytokine Storm'in COVID-19." Journal of infection. 2020; 80: 607-13.

Han H, Ma Q, Li C, Liu R, Zhao L, Wang W, et al. Profiling serum cytokines in COVID-19 patients reveals IL-6 and IL-10 are disease severity predictors. Emerging Microbes & Infections. 2020; 9: 1123-30.

Ingolfsson HI, Koeppe RE, Andersen OS. Curcumin is a modulator of bilayer material properties. Biochemistry. 2007; 46: 10384–91.

Chen TY, Chen DY, Wen HW, Ou JL, Chiou SS, Chen JM, et al. Inhibition of enveloped viruses infectivity by curcumin. PLoS One. 2013; 8: e62482.

Colpitts CC, Schang LM, Rachmawati H, Frentzen A, Pfaender S, Behrendt P, et al. Turmeric curcumin inhibits entry of all hepatitis C virus genotypes into human liver cells. Gut. 2014; 63: 1137-49.

Mounce BC, Cesaro T, Carrau L, Vallet T, Vignuzzi M. Curcumin inhibits Zika and chikungunya virus infection by inhibiting cell binding. Antiviral Res. 2017; 142: 148-57.

Gao Y, Tai W, Wang N, Li X, Jiang S, Debnath AK, et al. Identification of Novel Natural Products as Effective and Broad-Spectrum Anti-Zika Virus Inhibitors. Viruses. 2019; 11: 1019.

Baikerikar S. Curcumin and Natural Derivatives Inhibit Ebola Viral Proteins: An In silico Approach. Pharmacognosy Res. 2017; 9: S15-S22.

Dai J, Gu L, Su Y, Wang Q, Zhao Y, Chen X, et al. Inhibition of curcumin on influenza A virus infection and influenzal pneumonia via oxidative stress, TLR2/4, p38/JNK MAPK and NF-κB pathways. Int Immunopharmacol. 2018; 54: 177-87.

Wen CC, Kuo YH, Jan JT, Liang PH, Wang SY, Liu HG, et al. Specific plant terpenoids and lignoids possess potent antiviral activities against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. J. Med. Chem. 2007; 50: 4087–95.

Roy A, Sarkar B, Celik C, Ghosh A, Basu U, Jana M. Can concomitant use of zinc and curcumin with other immunity-boosting nutraceuticals be the arsenal against COVID-19?. Phytotherapy Research. 2020.

Srivastava AK, Kumar A, Misra N. On the Inhibition of COVID- 19 Protease by Indian Herbal Plants: An In Silico Investigation. arXiv preprint arXiv: 2004. 03411. 2020.

Chen L, Hu C, Hood M, Zhang X, Zhang L, Kan J. A Novel Combination of Vitamin C, Curcumin and Glycyrrhizic Acid Potentially Regulates Immune and Inflammatory Response Associated with Coronavirus Infections: A Perspective from System Biology Analysis. Nutrients. 2020; 12: 1193.

Liu YT, Chen HW, Lii CK, Jhuang JH, Huang CS, Li ML, et al. A diterpenoid, 14-deoxy-11, 12-didehydro andro grapholide, in Andrographis paniculata reduces steato hepatitis and liver injury in mice fed a high-fat and high-cholesterol diet. Nutrients. 2020; 12: 523.

Liu Z, Xiao X, Wei X, Li J, Yang J, Tan H, et al. Composition and divergence of coronavirus spike proteins and host ACE2 receptors predict potential intermediate hosts of SARS- CoV-2. J. Med. Virol. 2020; 92: 595-601.

Ackermann M, Verleden SE, Kuehnel M, Haverich A, Welte T, Laenger F, etal. Pulmonary vascular endothelialitis, thrombosis, and angiogenesis in Covid-19. N Engl J Med 2020; 383: 120-28.

Das S, Sarmah S, Lyndem S, Roy AS. An investigation into the identification of potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 main protease using molecular docking study. J Biomol Struct Dyn. 2020; 13: 1–11.

Patel A, Rajendran M, Pakala SB, Shah A, Patel H, Karyala P. Virtual Screening of Curcumin and Its Analogs Against the Spike Surface Glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV. 2020.

Khaerunnisa S, Kurniawan H, Awaluddin R, Suhartati S, Soetjipto S. Potential inhibitor of COVID-19 main protease (Mpro) from several medicinal plant compounds by molecular docking study. Prepr. 2020; 20944: 1-4.

Lin CY, Yao CA. Potential Role of Nrf2 Activators with Dual Antiviral and Anti-Inflammatory Properties in the Management of Viral Pneumonia. Infection and Drug Resistance. 2020; 13: 1735-41.

Suravajhala R, Parashar A, Malik B, Nagaraj AV, Padmanaban G, Kavi Kishor P, et al. Comparative Docking Studies on Curcumin with COVID-19 Proteins. Preprints. 2020.

Clinical trials arena. "MGC begins Phase II study of ArtemiC to treat Covid-19."2020.

Published
2020-12-23