Effects of the combined treatment of verapamil and curcumin on microglial inflammation

Identifier:  TFG:2977

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TFG2977

Authors:  Marco Aisa, María

Abstract:
Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder with a 1.5 Mb deletion on chromosome 7q11.23. The murine model of complete deletion (CD) of the disease includes the most common deletion found in patients with WBS, as well as its neurocognitive phenotype. It has been seen in certain neurodegenerative diseases that neurobehavioral disorders are determined by a chronic neuroinflammation environment, which facilitates neuronal damage and death. Proinflammatory cells are responsible for triggering neuroinflammation processes. Previous studies have confirmed that a combination treatment of verapamil, a medicine widely used in the general population, and curcumin, a natural phenol found in turmeric, improves WBS behavioral traits. We have carried out a study to investigate the effects of this combined treatment on the inflammation of the microglial cells, in order to determine if the WBS behavioral disorders have a microglial component. A series of histological analyzes were performed to evaluate the number of microglial cells and the percentage of proinflammatory cells. The treatment was able to significantly decrease the number of proinflammatory cells present in the CD animals; however, it did not produce variations in the total number of microglial cells. The results are preliminary, but it is possible that the treatment presents an anti-inflammatory activity, which has been observed in the components separately after studying them as a treatment for certain neurodegenerative diseases. Consequently, these results suggest that the beneficial effects of the combined treatment of verapamil and curcumin on neurobehavioral disorders WBS, could be the result of a reduction of microglial inflammation.