Combination of marine bioactive compounds and extracts for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases

Belgheis Ebrahimi; Saeid Baroutian; Jinyao Li; Baohong Zhang; Tianlei Ying; Jun Lu

doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.1047026

Combination of marine bioactive compounds and extracts for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases

Front Nutr. 2023 Jan 12:9:1047026. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.1047026. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Belgheis Ebrahimi¹, Saeid Baroutian², Jinyao Li³, Baohong Zhang⁴, Tianlei Ying⁵, Jun Lu^{1

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Affiliations

¹ School of Science, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand.
² Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
³ Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Biological Resources and Genetic Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Xinjiang University, Xinjiang, China.
⁴ School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Virology of MOE/MOH, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
⁶ Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
⁷ Institute of Biomedical Technology, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand.
⁸ Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Discovery, Auckland, New Zealand.
⁹ College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
¹⁰ College of Food Engineering and Nutrition Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
¹¹ College of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.

Abstract

Background: In recent years, marine-based functional foods and combination therapy are receiving greater recognition for their roles in healthy lifestyle applications and are being investigated as viable and effective strategies for disease treatment or prevention.

Aim of the review: This review article presents and discusses the relevant scientific publications that have studied the synergistic and additive effects of natural marine bioactive compounds and extract combinations with anti-obesity, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and chemopreventive activities in the last two decades. The paper presents the mechanism of action and health benefits of developed combinations and discusses the limitation of the studies. Furthermore, it recommends alternatives and directions for future studies. Finally, it highlights the factors for developing novel combinations of marine bioactive compounds.

Key scientific concepts of review: Combination of marine bioactive compounds or extracts affords synergistic or additive effects by multiple means, such as multi-target effects, enhancing the bioavailability, boosting the bioactivity, and neutralizing adverse effects of compounds in the mixture. For the development of marine-based combinations, there are key points for consideration and issues to address: knowledge of the mechanism of action of individual compounds and their combinations, optimum ratio and dosing of compounds, and experimental models must all be taken into account. Strategies to increase the number and diversity of marine combinations, and further development of marine-based functional foods, are available. However, only a small number of natural marine bioactive combinations have been assessed, and most research has been focused on fish oil and carotenoid synergy. Therefore, more research and resources should be spent on developing novel marine bioactive combinations as functional foods and nutraceuticals.

Keywords: anti-inflammatory; anti-obesity; anticarcinogenic; antioxidant; marine bioactives; marine nutraceutical combination.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This research was financially supported by New Zealand National Science Challenge, High Value Nutrition grant HVN 3719491 1905-13024 to JLu; Education New Zealand, New Zealand-China Tripartite Research Collaboration Fund–AUT 13772 to JLu, JLi, TY, and BZ; Royal Society of New Zealand, Catalyst Seeding Fund−21-AUT-005-CSG to JLu and JLi.