Phycocyanin is an excellent antioxidant with anti-inflammatory effects on which recent studies are growing; however, its specific target remains unclear. Linear tetrapyrrole compounds such as bilirubin have been shown to lead to the induction of heme oxygenase 1 expression in vivo, thus achieving antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Phycocyanin is bound internally with linear tetrapyrrole phycocyanobilin in a similar structure to bilirubin. We speculate that there is probably a way of inducing the expression of heme oxygenase 1, with which tissue oxidative stress and inflammation can be inhibited, thus inhibiting pulmonary fibrosis caused by oxidative damage and inflammation of lung. By optimizing the enzymatic hydrolysis process, phycocyanobilin-bound phycocyanin peptide were obtained, and its in vitro antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-pulmonary fibrosis activities were investigated. The results show that the phycocyanobilin peptide was able to alleviate oxidative and inflammatory damage in cells through the Keap1-Nrf2-HO-1 pathway, which in turn relieved pulmonary fibrosis symptoms.
Keywords: heme oxygenases-1; inflammatory; oxidative stress; phycocyanin; phycocyanin peptide; pulmonary fibrosis.