Curcumin Promotes A-beta Fibrillation and Reduces Neurotoxicity in Transgenic Drosophila

The pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the presence of extracellular deposits of misfolded and aggregated amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide and intraneuronal accumulation of tangles comprised of hyperphosphorylated Tau protein. For several years, the natural compound curcumin has been proposed to be a candidate for enhanced clearance of toxic Aβ amyloid. In this study we have studied the potency of feeding curcumin as a drug candidate to alleviate Aβ toxicity in transgenic Drosophila. The longevity as well as the locomotor activity of five different AD model genotypes, measured relative to a control line, showed up to 75% improved lifespan and activity for curcumin fed flies. In contrast to the majority of studies of curcumin effects on amyloid we did not observe any decrease in the amount of Aβ deposition following curcumin treatment. Conformation-dependent spectra from p-FTAA, a luminescent conjugated oligothiophene bound to Aβ deposits in different Drosophila genotypes over time, indicated accelerated pre-fibrillar to fibril conversion of Aβ1–42 in curcumin treated flies. This finding was supported by in vitro fibrillation assays of recombinant Aβ1–42. Our study shows that curcumin promotes amyloid fibril conversion by reducing the pre-fibrillar/oligomeric species of Aβ, resulting in a reduced neurotoxicity in Drosophila

Teaching: Natural or Cultural?

In this chapter I argue that teaching, as we now understand the term, is historically and cross-culturally very rare. It appears to be unnecessary to transmit culture or to socialize children. Children are, on the other hand, primed by evolution to be avid observers, imitators, players and helpers—roles that reveal the profoundly autonomous and self-directed nature of culture acquisition (Lancy in press a). And yet, teaching is ubiquitous throughout the modern world—at least among the middle to upper class segment of the population. This ubiquity has led numerous scholars to argue for the universality and uniqueness of teaching as a characteristically human behavior. The theme of this chapter is that this proposition is unsustainable. Teaching is largely a result of recent cultural changes and the emergence of modern economies, not evolution

Anthropology and the nature-society-development nexus

This chapter follows the tribulations of a socio-ecological project at the periphery of one of the world’s megalopolises, São Paulo. It investigates the circumstances under which the agroecologists involved in such projects create meaningful worlds through the cultivation of ecological awareness. I show how sustainability comes to figure as a central value in the agroecological movement, which is widespread throughout Latin America

Claudia Andujar's solidarity with the Yanomami people

In 1972, when photographer Claudia Andujar caught malaria, she left the Catrimani river basin, where she had been sharing the life of a Yanomami extended family for many months, to receive treatment at her São Paulo home. The long journey back south was followed by a frustrating year trying to fully recover. It was during this time away from her Yanomami friends that Andujar perfected many of the visualisation and photographic techniques she brought with her when she finally was able to return. These techniques enabled her and the Yanomami artists she engaged with to create the treasures currently exhibited at the Barbican's Claudia Andujar: The Yanomami Struggle. By making visible the paths Yanomami culture takes to renew itself, these works also facilitated new forms of intercultural communication and exchange between Yanomami and White artists like Andujar. She fled from Europe to the USA in 1946 with her mother, after her father and other relatives were killed in Dachau, and moved to Brazil in 1955. For over 50 years Andujar photographed Brazil's Indigenous peoples, particularly the Yanomami. This retrospective exhibition celebrates Andujar's decades of artistic and political engagement with and for the Yanomami and her pioneer art that transmutes death into love and suffering into beauty. These images communicate the sensibilities of intertwined lives across the Amazon region, Europe, and Latin America. They speak of life worth living across differences, especially generational ones