Wow, I got the opposite impression from reading that same study... that curcumin might repair a damaged blood brain barrier so that it could keep the stuff out that it is supposed to. Granted its an in vitro analysis of the effect on certain proteins but they're just trying the explain an in vivo effect attributed to curcumin by traditional Chinese medicine. The more fundamental question is whether the believed effect actually occurs in vivo. Here's an in vivo study supporting that same idea but with a different theory:
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/22902770This study examines the preventive and therapeutic effects of curcumin on brain edema after hypoxic-ischemic brain damage (HIBD) in a rat model. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups ... Curcumin injection , but not the control DMSO injection, partially reversed HIBD-induced brain edema and morphological changes .... Curcumin may protect the BBB ultrastructure and thus decrease brain edema following HIBD...
It seems logical that curcumin would be likely to at least slow down the progress of ischemic brain damage if you developed a disease with that effect.
Howard