Transforming curry extract-spice to liposome-based curcumin: lipocurc to restore and boost brain health in COVID-19 syndrome

Chiu, Simon S.; Terpstra, Kristen; Woodbury-Farina, Michel; Badmaev, Vladimir; Varghese, Josh; Raheb, Hana; Lui, Ed; Cernovsky, Zack; Bureau, Yves; Husni, Mariwan; Copen, John; Shad, Mujeeb; Carriere, Autumn; Khazaeipool, Zahra; Sieffien, Weam; Henein, Marina; Casola, Brendan; Shrivastava, Siddhansh

Despite the devastating impact of COVID-19 on all domains of health, very few studies focus on epigenetics-based approaches to target both the viral-host immune responses and central nervous system involvement in COVID-19. Hospitalized COVID-19 patients experience a wide array of neurological symptoms ranging from convulsions to strokelike syndrome and anosmia. None of the pipeline antiviral drugs has been shown to penetrate the blood-brain barrier to exert neurotrophic actions to counteract the COVID-19 damage to the brain. We have identified curcumin extracted from Turmeric (Curcuma longa) exhibiting dual properties: to disrupt viral attachment and hijacking host-viral immune response and to target epigenetics pathway regulating oxidative stress and inflammation responses underlying COVID-19 syndrome. We recruit nanotechnology to formulate liposome-based curcumin: Lipocurc, and completed Phase I study showing very favorable safety and efficacy in Parkinson disease model. We propose to translate the findings to COVID-19 syndrome and exploit the antidepressant and cognitive enhancing properties to accelerate recovery from COVID-19 through navigating brain pathways regulating mood, behavioral control, and cognition within the context of acute and postacute COVID-19 syndrome.