Abstract P410: A Novel Curcumin Formulation, ASD-cur Suppressed Heart Failure After Myocardial Infarction In Rats

Introduction: Curcumin prevents the development of heart failure and is a potential treatment for heart failure. Although curcumin is known to be safe, its therapeutic efficiency is limited due to its low bioavailability. To overcome this problem, we developed ASD-Cur, an amorphous formulation of curcumin. In this study, we investigated the effect of ASD-Cur and compared it with Theracurmin ® , a colloidal submicron dispersion of curcumin. Methods: Male SD rats were orally administrated with ASD-Cur or Theracurmin ® (10 mg/kg curcumin). The plasma levels of curcumin were measured at 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 and 6 hours after administration. Twelve healthy volunteers, who had provided written informed consent, were administrated with ASD-Cur and Theracurmin ® containing 30 mg curcumin, and plasma curcumin concentrations were determined at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 8 hours. Next, male SD rats were subjected to MI or sham surgery. One week after surgery, the MI rats were randomly assigned to 4 groups: vehicle, ASD-Cur (0.2 mg/kg curcumin) or Theracurmin ® (0.2 or 0.5 mg/kg curcumin). Oral administration of these compounds was repeated for 6 weeks. After echocardiographic examinations, myocardial cell diameter, perivascular fibrosis, mRNA levels, and the acetylation of histone H3K9 were measured. Results: After administration in rats, the area under the plasma concentration-time curve ( AUC 0-6h ) and the maximum plasma concentration ( C max ) of ASD-Cur were 3.7-fold and 9.6-fold higher than those of Theracurmin ® , respectively. The AUC 0-8h and C max of ASD-Cur in humans were 3.4-fold and 5.4-fold higher than those of Theracurmin ® , respectively. Echocardiographic analysis showed that 0.2 mg/kg ASD-Cur and 0.5 mg/kg Theracurmin ® significantly improved the MI-induced deterioration of FS and left ventricular hypertrophy to the same extent. Both treatments significantly suppressed MI-induced increases in myocardial cell diameter, perivascular fibrosis, mRNA levels of hypertrophic markers and cardiac fibrosis, and acetylation of histone H3K9 to the same extent. Conclusion: These findings indicated that ASD-Cur has greater bioavailability than Theracurmin ® , and could exhibit greater therapeutic potency towards for MI-induced heart failure at a lower dose.