Curcumin in Liver Diseases: A Systematic Review of the Cellular Mechanisms of Oxidative Stress and Clinical Perspective.

Mohammad Farzaei,Mohammad Abdollahi,Ericsson Coy-Barrera,Seyed Nabavi,Ilias Marmouzi,Fardous El-Senduny,Fatemeh Parvizi,Mahdi Zobeiri,Rozita Naseri,Roja Rahimi

doi:10.3390/nu10070855

Abstract

Oxidative stress has been considered a key causing factor of liver damage induced by a variety of agents, including alcohol, drugs, viral infections, environmental pollutants and dietary components, which in turn results in progression of liver injury, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, non-alcoholic liver disease, liver fibrosis and cirrhosis. During the past 30 years and even after the major progress in the liver disease management, millions of people worldwide still suffer from an acute or chronic liver condition. Curcumin is one of the most commonly used indigenous molecules endowed by various shielding functionalities that protects the liver. The aim of the present study is to comprehensively review pharmacological effects and molecular mechanisms, as well as clinical evidence, of curcumin as a lead compound in the prevention and treatment of oxidative associated liver diseases. For this purpose, electronic databases including “Scopus,” “PubMed,” “Science Direct” and “Cochrane library” were extensively searched with the keywords “curcumin or curcuminoids” and “hepatoprotective or hepatotoxicity or liver” along with “oxidative or oxidant.” Results showed that curcumin exerts remarkable protective and therapeutic effects of oxidative associated liver diseases through various cellular and molecular mechanisms. Those mechanisms include suppressing the proinflammatory cytokines, lipid perodixation products, PI3K/Akt and hepatic stellate cells activation, as well as ameliorating cellular responses to oxidative stress such as the expression of Nrf2, SOD, CAT, GSH, GPx and GR. Taking together, curcumin itself acts as a free radical scavenger over the activity of different kinds of ROS via its phenolic, β-diketone and methoxy group. Further clinical studies are still needed in order to recognize the structure-activity relationships and molecular mechanisms of curcumin in oxidative associated liver diseases.

Highlights

During the past 30 years and even after the major progress in the liver disease management, millions of people still suffer from an acute or chronic liver condition worldwide
The results showed that the amelioration of antioxidant enzymes, including glutathione S-transferase (GST), glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and CAT, the inhibition of ROS production can prevent oxidative stress in pre-treatment
Liver sonography showed that curcumin improved the NAFLD sonography grade to 78.9%, where grade 3 was not detected in the participants, grade 2 was detected in only 13.2% of patients and 15.8% were completely improved

Summary

Introduction

During the past 30 years and even after the major progress in the liver disease management, millions of people still suffer from an acute or chronic liver condition worldwide. Liver diseases affect more than 10% of the world population and its mortal end-stage generally follows cirrhosis and liver cancer [1]. Diverse etiologies characterize the disease to constitute about the fourth to the fifth cause of deaths worldwide. The Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is the global leading cause of liver diseases with 40% frequently, followed by Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and harmful alcohol consumption, accounting for 30%, 15% and 11%, respectively [1]. Chronic liver diseases are often accompanied by increased oxidative stress, irrespective of the cause of the liver dysfunction [2].

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