The role of curcumin in the liver-gut system diseases: from mechanisms to clinical therapeutic perspective

Abstract

Natural products have provided abundant sources of lead compounds for new drug discovery and development over the past centuries. Curcumin is a lipophilic polyphenol isolated from turmeric, a plant used in traditional Asian medicine for centuries. Despite the low oral bioavailability, curcumin exhibits profound medicinal value in various diseases, especially liver and gut diseases, bringing an interest in the paradox of its low bioavailability but high bioactivity. Several latest studies suggest that curcumin’s health benefits may rely on its positive gastrointestinal effects rather than its poor bioavailability solely. Microbial antigens, metabolites, and bile acids regulate metabolism and immune responses in the intestine and liver, suggesting the possibility that the liver-gut axis bidirectional crosstalk controls gastrointestinal health and diseases. Accordingly, these pieces of evidence have evoked great interest in the curcumin-mediated crosstalk among liver-gut system diseases. The present study discussed the beneficial effects of curcumin against common liver and gut diseases and explored the underlying molecular targets, as well as collected evidence from human clinical studies. Moreover, this study summarized the roles of curcumin in complex metabolic interactions in liver and intestine diseases supporting the application of curcumin in the liver-gut system as a potential therapeutic option, which opens an avenue for clinical use in the future.

Keywords:

• Curcumin
• liver-gut axis
• gut microbiota
• bile acids

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest in relation to the present work.

Authors’ contributions

T. Qin conceived the idea and wrote the manuscript along with X. Chen. T. Qin, Q. Quo and S. Hou organized the tables and draw the figures. J. Meng and S. Xu assisted in the formation of tables and figures. Z. Yuan and W. Zhang revised and approved the manuscript.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work is financially supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China 82104551, Henan Science and Technology Project 222102310077, Ningbo Natural Science Foundation 2019A610311 and the Doctoral Research Start-up Foundation of Henan Cancer Hospital.