The Protective Effects of Water-Soluble Alginic Acid on the N-Terminal of Thymopentin

Abstract

Thymopentin (TP5) has exhibited strong antitumor and immunomodulatory effects in vivo. However, the polypeptide is rapidly degraded by protease and aminopeptidase within a minute at the N-terminal of TP5, resulting in severe limitations for further practical applications. In this study, the protective effects of water-soluble alginic acid (WSAA) on the N-terminal of TP5 were investigated by establishing an H22 tumor-bearing mice model and determining thymus, spleen, and liver indices, immune cells activities, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-2, and IL-4 levels, and cell cycle distributions. The results demonstrated that WSAA+TP5 groups exhibited the obvious advantages of the individual treatments and showed superior antitumor effects on H22 tumor-bearing mice by effectively protecting the immune organs, activating CD4+ T cells and CD19+ B cells, and promoting immune-related cytokines secretions, finally resulting in the high apoptotic rates of H22 cells through arresting them in S phase. These data suggest that WSAA could effectively protect the N-terminal of TP5, thereby improving its antitumor and immunoregulatory activities, which indicates that WSAA has the potential to be applied in patients bearing cancer or immune deficiency diseases as a novel immunologic adjuvant.

Systemic Immunomodulatory Effects of Codonopsis pilosula Glucofructan on S180 Solid-Tumor-Bearing Mice

“…The expression of IL-2, IFN-γ, and TNF-α levels in mouse sera was assessed by employing the corresponding ELISA kits, and the results were obtained using a BioRad Model 680 Microplate Reader (Hercules, CA, USA) at 450 nm [57].…”

Ions-Induced Alginate Gelation According to Elemental Analysis and a Combinatorial Approach

“…[28][29][30]. Alginates are also characterized by some medicinal properties, in particular, antitumor, immunomodulatory [31,32] and antioxidant [33] activities, antianaphylaxis [34], anti-inflammatory [35] effects, and exert antihypertensive potential [36]. The ability of alginates to sorption of heavy metals, metalloids, fluorides, and toxic compounds is used both in medicine and for the creation of bio-sorbents and materials for water purification [8][9][10][11][12][13]37,38].…”