Curcumin Analogues as Novel Anti-Alzheimer's Candidates: Synthesis Development Strategy, In vitro, Cell-Based and In vivo Studies.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurological illness that is known to cause a wide range of cognitive symptoms linked to amyloid plaque deposition, neurofibrillary tangles, oxidative stress, and neuronal death in the whole brain. Curcumin has shown promising efficacy in preclinical studies for AD treatment. However, it failed to exhibit expected clinical outcomes in clinical studies. Besides, this molecule was found to have low stability, solubility, and bioavailability properties. Hence, scientists have synthesized several curcumin analogues in order to improve their bioavailability and biological activity. In this narrative review, we aim to discuss the development of curcumin analogue synthesis published in 2016-2021 and its efficacy as an anti-Alzheimer's candidate through in vitro, cell-based, and in vivo studies. PubMed and Scopus database were searched using the keywords "curcumin" AND "analogues" OR "analogs" AND "Alzheimer's" to find relevant studies. In our review, we included 16 eligible journal articles to discuss. In total, 15 curcumin analogues exhibited promising efficacy in preclinical studies and are found suitable for anti-Alzheimer's candidates. Further studies should explore curcumin analogues' effectiveness in other AD subpathologies as well as its pharmacokinetic profile and ability to achieve target action in the brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]