Activation of NK cells in male cancer survivors by fucoidan extracted from Cladosiphon okamuranus

Abstract

Cancer survivors are highly motivated to seek information about the use of dietary supplements and complementary nutritional therapies to improve their quality of life. Fucoidan, a sulfated polysaccharide extracted from brown marine alga, exhibits a wide range of bioactivities, including anticancer activity. As natural killer (NK) cells serve an important role in defenses against tumor cells, the present study examined the effects of fucoidan extracted from Cladosiphon Okamuranus on NK cell activity in cancer survivors. A prospective, open-label clinical study was conducted on cancer survivors treated with fucoidan via oral administration; 11 cancer survivors with a performance status of 0 or 1 participated and consumed 3 g of fucoidan for 6 months. No significant changes were observed in the mean activities of NK cells in total subjects following the ingestion of fucoidan. An analysis of each sex revealed that NK cell activity was significantly increased by the ingestion of fucoidan in male, yet not female subjects. Serum fucoidan levels were markedly increased following the ingestion of fucoidan and the peak levels ranged between 30 and 198 ng/ml. Tumor markers remained within the reference range during the trial period in subjects, in whom primary tumors were eradicated by treatment. The basal values of tumor markers were elevated in three cases; tumor markers were increased in two cases and decreased in one by the ingestion of fucoidan. These findings suggest that fucoidan enhances the activation of NK cells in male cancer survivors.

Discovery and Characterization of an Endo-1,3-Fucanase From Marine Bacterium Wenyingzhuangia fucanilytica: A Novel Glycoside Hydrolase Family

“…Sulfated fucans, also known as fucoidans, are sulfated polysaccharides mainly composed of L-fucose and sulfate groups usually extracted from brown algae and echinoderms. Because of their various biological and biomedical characteristics such as being anticoagulant (Colliec et al, 1991;Cumashi et al, 2007), antithrombotic (Min et al, 2012), anti-inflammatory (Cumashi et al, 2007), anticancer (Nagamine et al, 2020), and immunomodulatory (Amin et al, 2020), research interest in sulfated fucans have increased. Additionally, they had been utilized for dermal burn healing (Sezer et al, 2007), wound healing (Murakami et al, 2010) and bone tissue regeneration (Jin and Kim, 2011) due to their excellent biocompatibility.…”

Intestinal Microbiota and Immune Modulation in Zebrafish by Fucoidan From Okinawa Mozuku (Cladosiphon okamuranus)

“…Similar to what has been shown for fucoidan derived from other origins, OM fucoidan has been reported to exert antitumor and antiviral effects. In a murine model, antitumor activity has been attributed to the fucoidan-mediated stimulation of macrophages and natural killer cells ( 8 , 9 ), while antiviral activities seem to be more complex and may involve both host–virus and virus–fucoidan interactions. Previous studies have reported antiviral activities of OM fucoidan against human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) ( 10 , 11 ), dengue virus type 2 ( 12 ), hepatitis C ( 13 ), Newcastle disease virus (DSV) in poultry ( 14 , 15 ), and canine distemper virus (CDV) ( 16 ).…”

The Structural Characteristics of Seaweed Polysaccharides and Their Application in Gel Drug Delivery Systems

“…The biological and pharmacological activities of several typical marine polysaccharides are shown in Table 1 [ 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 ].…”