Novel Therapeutic Efficacy of Curcumin and Fish Oil (Omega-3 Fatty Acids) on Inhibiting Neuroinflammation and Neuronal Apoptosis via LPS Induction in BV-2 Cells

Neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease, have become more common in recent years, with the number of deaths due to neurological disorders increasing by about 39% since 1990 (GBD 2016 Neurology collaborators, 2019). Neuroinflammation (NI), an inflammatory response within the brain or spinal cord has been shown to accelerate the development of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Conventional pharmaceutical drugs to treat NI can be expensive and promote financial burdens for chronic treatment. The goal of this study was to identify possible natural product alternatives that control NI and stable cell morphology. One viable alternative is curcumin, a chemical compound found in turmeric (Curcuma longa). Another alternative is fish oil, a natural product enriched with omega-3 fatty acids. Pretreatment with curcumin or fish oil significantly attenuated lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cytokine release from acute and chronically treated BV-2 microglial cells and reduced Caspase 3/7 expression in HT-22 neuronal cells.