Effect of Curcumin on Experimental Models of Cystic Fibrosis: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Context: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder characterized by CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene defects and chronic inflammation. Management of CF patients is challenging, and no definitive treatment is available. Although evidence suggests that curcumin is effective against inflammation and can regulate ion channels, its effect on CF patients is not well established. Objectives: This systematic review evaluated the available evidence for the application of curcumin in experimental models of CF. Evidence Acquisition: The data in this study were selected from articles published in PubMed, ScienceDirect, ProQuest, and Springer until July 2021. Articles on the use of curcumin in CF patients were included based on the purpose of the study. In this review, 11 articles were found in the final search. Then, a quality assessment was performed using SYRCLE’s RoB tool. Results: Eleven out of 2188 screened studies were eligible for this systematic review. Most in vitro studies (7 out of 8) reported that curcumin influences channel function through a variety of mechanisms, while only 1 study provided comparable results. Regarding anti-inflammatory function, 1 study showed that curcumin could suppress the toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) gene and protein expression in the CF bronchial epithelial cell line. Two of 3 in vivo studies reported channel correction with curcumin. Conclusions: The available evidence in this systematic study demonstrates the usefulness of curcumin via different mechanisms among different study models. Given that few studies have been conducted in this field, this systematic review suggests more investigations be undertaken to facilitate generalization to human studies.