Curcumin has neuroprotective effects in rotenone-induced Parkinson disease in mice by affecting bcl-2 family gene expressions

 One of the common diseases in different societies is Parkinson's disease (PD), for which no suitable treatment has been found yet. Curcumin a natural compound has shown neuroprotective properties in many studies. Therefore, in this research, the administration of this compound to female mice was studied.

Induction of PD in mice was done by administering 2 mg rotenone, and then a Rotarod test was performed on female mice. Also, 50 mg/kg of curcumin was administered every day for 21 days and its effects were evaluated in PD mice. Finally, the expression levels of bax and bcl-2 were measured in the brain of female mice by RT-PCR technique. GraphPad Prism V.8 software was used for data analysis.

Induction of PD led to a decrease in the performance of mice in the Rotarod test. However, the administration of curcumin to these mice improved their performance. Also, overexpression of bax and downregulation of bcl-2 genes were observed in the brains of PD mice, to whom the administration of curcumin downregulated bax gene and overexpressed bcl-2 gene.

Curcumin has neuroprotective effects in PD conditions, which can be attributed to the change in expressions of the bcl-2 family gene. More studies are needed in this field.