Background: Although curcumin is a blood-brain-barrier permeable molecule with the ability to bind and segregate β-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles of hyperphosphorylated tau proteins, its poor oral bioavailability, rapid biotransformation to inactive metabolites, fast elimination from the systemic circulation, and hence the poor neuronal uptake has been limiting its clinical efficacy under neurodegenerative conditions.
Objective: We hypothesized that the highly bioavailable CurQfen-curcumin (CGM), which has been shown to possess significant blood-brain-barrier permeability and brain bioavailability, would ameliorate dementia in neurodegenerative conditions.
Methods: In the present double-blinded placebo-controlled 3-arm 3-sequence comparative study, 48 subjects characterized with moderate dementia due to the onset of Alzheimer's disease were randomized into three groups ( = 16/group) and supplemented with 400 mg × 2/day of either placebo (MCC), unformulated standard curcumin complex with 95% purity (USC), or CGM as a sachet for six months.