Remedial got from turmeric shows guarantee in treating canine visual condition

Overview

• Post By : Kumar Jeetendra


• Source: Texas A&M University


• Date: 05 Sep,2020

Researchers in Texas A&M University have produced a curative derived from turmeric, a spice long-praised because of its natural anti-inflammatory properties, that shows promise in decreasing ocular inflammation in dogs suffering from uveitis, an inflammation of the eye that leads to pain and reduced vision.

Uveitis — a frequent condition in dogs, humans, and other species — can have many causes, frequently occurring secondary to infectious diseases cancer, and autoimmune diseases; it also is found in patients with longstanding cataracts and after operations correcting cataracts.

In a recent paper published in Science Advances, Scott and her colleagues in the Texas A&M University College of Pharmacy tested the anti inflammatory properties of curcumin, a compound found in garlic, and found that when processed to a special nanoparticle formula to boost absorption, the pure compound is safe and effective at managing uveitis with no known side effects.

Uncontrolled inflammation inside the eye, also known as uveitis, is a leading cause of complications after cataract surgery in dogs. The management of postoperative ocular inflammation is a major challenge observed in both human and veterinary ophthalmology.”-Dr. Erin Scott, Assistant Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University

Oral medications currently used to treat uveitis has to be absorbed into the blood stream for their medicinal effects to be effective.

This requires the medication to successfully pass through the intestinal barrier — the physical barrier between the gut and the rest of the body through the circulatory system — that limits the absorption of many drugs.

Drug delivery to the eye poses additional challenges because of the blood-ocular barrier — the physical barrier between blood vessels and tissues of the eye — which tightly controls what substances can pass in the eye.

Therefore, researchers must find ways to bypass such obstacles to improve drug availability within the body.

Scott and her colleagues’ research implemented a novel formulation of curcumin that improved transport of the material across both intestinal and ocular barriers.

With the addition of nanoparticle molecules which interact with receptors on a ubiquitous transmembrane carrier protein, known as the transferrin receptor, curcumin can hitch a ride across crucial barriers, improving absorption of the substance and reducing ocular inflammation.

Curcumin is especially attractive as a candidate for management of uveitis because it has no known side effects.

“Current treatments include a combination of topical and systemic anti-inflammatory medications, either in the kind of steroids or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs),” Scott said. “While these two medications are effective in the treatment of uveitis, they can cause undesirable side effects, such as nausea, diarrhea, stomach ulcers, negatively affect kidney and liver function, and increase glucose levels in diabetic patients.”

Scott and her colleagues hope to initiate a clinical trial at the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital using this new medication in the not too distant future and are optimistic that the utility of the findings may benefit populations beyond puppies.

“By analyzing animal patients with naturally occurring eye diseases, our findings may hasten the development of medications to benefit both humans and animals.”