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Brain Targeted Curcumin Loaded Turmeric Oil Microemulsion Protects Against Trimethyltin Induced Neurodegeneration in Adult Zebrafish: A Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Insight

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Abstract

Purpose

Aromatic turmerone, a major constituent of turmeric oil, has been recently reported for proliferation of neural stem cell showing great potential for effective treatment in neurodegenerative disorders. However, its effect as oral brain targeted formulation for neuroprotection has not yet reported. The objective of the study was to investigate the pharmacokinetic of curcumin loaded turmeric oil microemulsion for brain targeting and probing the protective effect against trimethyltin induced neurodegeneration in adult zebrafish.

Methods

Initially, in vivo plasma and brain pharmacokinetics was performed to determine improvement in relative bioavailability in rats followed by biodistribution and histopathological evaluation. Furthermore, the neuroprotective effect of the formulation was assessed in trimethyltin induced neurodegeneration model using adult zebrafish by behavioral analysis and biochemical analysis.

Results

The in vivo plasma and brain pharmacokinetics showed 2-fold and 1.87-fold improvement respectively. Biodistribution study revealed significantly lower concentration in organs other than brain. Furthermore, curcumin microemulsion exhibited improved spatial memory by remembering the training and made correct choices after curcumin microemulsion treatment than other treatment groups. Histopathological evaluation confirmed neuroprotective effect on zebrafish brains. The biochemical analysis revealed reduced oxidative stress in curcumin microemulsion treated group.

Conclusions

Overall results showed a great potential of curcumin microemulsion for brain targeting in the effective treatment of neurological ailments.

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Data Availability

Data available on request.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to Arjuna Naturals, BASF India and Sahyadri Natural Extracts for providing gift samples. The authors also thank Dr. Piyush Mehta for his valuable technical assistance in writing the manuscript.

Funding

This research project was funded by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Government of India under RPS-NDF Scheme (ref no. 8–33/RIFD/RPS-NDF/POLICY-1/2018–19).

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  1. Department of Pharmaceutics, Poona College of Pharmacy, Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University), Paud Road, Erandwane, Pune, 411038, Maharashtra, India

    Suraj More & Atmaram Pawar

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All the authors participated in research design and wrote or contributed to the writing of the manuscript; S.K.M. was responsible for Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Writing—Original Draft, Writing—Review & Editing, and Visualization. A.P.P. was responsible for Conceptualization, Resources, Writing—Review & Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration and Funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Atmaram Pawar.

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More, S., Pawar, A. Brain Targeted Curcumin Loaded Turmeric Oil Microemulsion Protects Against Trimethyltin Induced Neurodegeneration in Adult Zebrafish: A Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Insight. Pharm Res 40, 675–687 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11095-022-03467-9

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