Effects of nanocurcumin supplementation on T‐helper 17 cells inflammatory response in patients with Behcet’s disease: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Objective

Present research was performed to assess the effects of nanocurcumin supplementation on T‐helper 17 (Th17) cells inflammatory response in patients with Behcet’s disease (BD).

Methods

In this randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 36 BD subjects were randomly placed into two groups to take 80 mg/day nanocurcumin or placebo for eight weeks. Disease activity, frequency of Th17 cells and expression of related parameters including retinoic acid‐related orphan receptor γ (RORγt) transcription factor messenger RNA (mRNA), related microRNAs (miRNAs) such as miRNA-155, miRNA-181, and miRNA-326 as well as proinflammatory cytokines including interleukin (IL)‐17 and IL‐23 were evaluated.

Results

Thirty-two patients (17 in the nanocurcumin and 15 in the placebo groups) completed the trial. Number of Th17 cells decreased significantly in the nanocurcumin group compared to baseline (p = .012) and placebo (p = .047). Moreover, RORγt, IL‐17, IL‐23, miRNA-155, miRNA-181, and miRNA-326 mRNA expression decreased significantly in the nanocurcumin group compared with baseline (p = .004, p = .009, p < .001, p < .001, p < .001, p < .001, respectively) and placebo (p = .002, p = .021, p = .006, p = .035, p < .001, p = .017, respectively). Significant reductions in IL-17 and IL-23 were seen in nanocurcumin group compared with baseline (p = .017 and p = .015) and placebo (p = .047 and p = .048, respectively). Significant reduction in disease activity was observed in nanocurcumin group compared with placebo group (p = .035).

Conclusion

Nanocurcumin supplementation had favorable effects in improving inflammatory factors and disease activity in BD patients. Additional studies are warranted to suggest nanocurcumin as a safe complementary therapy in BD.

Highlights

• Nanocurcumin supplementation decreased Th17 cells frequency significantly compared with baseline and placebo group.

• Nanocurcumin supplementation decreased mRNA expression of RORγt, IL‐17, IL‐23, miRNA-155, miRNA-181, and miRNA-326 significantly compared to baseline and placebo group.

• Nanocurcumin supplementation decreased cell supernatant IL-17 and IL-23 significantly compared to baseline and placebo group.

• Nanocurcumin supplementation decreased disease activity significantly compared to placebo group.

Keywords:

• Behçet's disease
• nanocurcumin
• T‐helper 17 cells
• proinflammatory cytokines
• microRNA

Acknowledgements

The results of this manuscript are derived from the thesis of Dr. Rojin Farzaneh, which documented in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. We are thankful to the Connective Tissue Diseases Research Center of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran (Grant No. 62727) for financial support. We are also thankful to the patients for their cooperation.

Disclosure statement

There are no conflicts of interests.

Data availability statement

Data available on request due to privacy/ethical restrictions.

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Connective Tissue Diseases Research Center of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.