Figure 12

Nanocurcumin downregulates steady state transcripts of multiple pro-inflammatory cytokines. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were activated with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and 1 μg/ml lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and exposed to either free curcumin or nanocurcumin at 20 μM. Thereafter, transcript levels of three pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-8 and TNFα were measured by real time quantitative RT-PCR analysis. For IL-6, semi-quantitative RT-PCR was also performed to confirm the real time data. IL-6 expression is completely abrogated by exposure to free curcuminand nanocurcumin (A). IL-8 levels are also reduced with nanocurcumin therapy, albeit less than in free curcumin-treated PBMCs (B), while comparable and significant knockdown of TNFα transcripts is seen with both formulations(C). The error bars represent mean and standard deviations of experiments performed in triplicate.