The turmeric spice cannot be separated from Indian kitchen ingredients - probably because humans have known for centuries the spices beneficial effect in resolving digestion problems. The pigment of turmeric, curcumin, which gives curry its bright yellow colour, is also known to possess anti-carcinogenic properties. Now, scientists from TWINCORE in Hannover could demonstrate that curcumin inhibits hepatitis C virus (HCV) to enter human liver cells.
Approximately 130 million people are infected with HCV worldwide - in Germany about half a million people are infected with the virus. "Hepatitis-C-Virus is a liver specific pathogen and chronic liver disease due to HCV is a primary indication for liver transplantations", explains PD Dr. Eike Steinmann, scientist from the Institute for Experimental Virology. The most crucial time is after the transplantation as the healthy liver donor often gets re-infected from virus reservoirs in the blood. "To prevent this re-infection and thus to protect the new organ against the infection is a major clinical challenge", says Eike Steinmann.
"Many people from my home country consume turmeric as a part of traditional medication when they have liver and digestion complications", reports Anggakusuma, an Indonesian PhD student from the Institute for Experimental Virology, TWINCORE. "This motivated us to test the effect of curcumin against liver-tropic viruses, such as HCV". As a result, the yellow compound prevents entry of HCV particles into liver cells by modulating the flexibility of the virus envelope. Furthermore, it inhibits cell-to-cell transmission of the virus. "Subsequently, we tested curcumin in combination with clinically licensed HCV drugs and observed in cell cultures a significantly increased anti-viral effect compared to single treatments." Also the combination of curcumin and the green tea molecule Epigallocathin-3-gallate - which was shown already in 2011 by Eike Steinmann to inhibit HCV entry into liver cells - is much more effective than curcumin or green tea alone.
Will green tea spiced with curcumin become a standard drink in transplantation wards now? "The results raise hope", says Eike Steinmann, but there is a catch and that is the low bioavailability of curcumin. The pigment gets degraded quickly in the body and is therefore only effective for a short period after ingestion. However, TWINCORE partners in Indonesia have been working on new formulations of curcumin. They created nano-formulated curcumin which has a higher half-life in the body compared to the normal spice pigment. Further developments are needed before the yellow spice pigment can be used in HCV therapy. Meanwhile, the TWINCORE scientists will test other viruses if they can also be blocked by this Indian spice compound.
Publication:
Gut. 2013 Jul 31. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2012-304299. [Epub ahead of print]
Turmeric curcumin inhibits entry of all hepatitis C virus genotypes into human liver cells.
Anggakusuma, Colpitts CC, Schang LM, Rachmawati H, Frentzen A, Pfaender S, Behrendt P, Brown RJ, Bankwitz D, Steinmann J, Ott M, Meuleman P, Rice CM, Ploss A, Pietschmann T, Steinmann E.
Figure: PD Dr. Eike Steinmann and Anggakusuma
Contact:
Dr. Eike Steinmann, <link>eike.steinmann(at)twincore.de
Tel: +49 (0)511-220027-133
Anggakusuma, <link>angga.kusuma@twincore.de
Tel: +49 (0)511-220027-138