Determining the potent immunostimulation potential arising from the heteropolysaccharide structure of a novel fucoidan, derived from Sargassum Zhangii

Rui Li; Qing-Ling Zhou; Rui-Yu Yang; Shu-Tong Chen; Rui Ding; Xiao-Fei Liu; Lian-Xiang Luo; Qiu-Yu Xia; Sai-Yi Zhong; Yi Qi; Richard J Williams

doi:10.1016/j.fochx.2023.100712

Determining the potent immunostimulation potential arising from the heteropolysaccharide structure of a novel fucoidan, derived from Sargassum Zhangii

Food Chem X. 2023 May 16:18:100712. doi: 10.1016/j.fochx.2023.100712. eCollection 2023 Jun 30.

Authors

Rui Li^{1

2}, Qing-Ling Zhou¹, Rui-Yu Yang¹, Shu-Tong Chen^{1

3}, Rui Ding⁴, Xiao-Fei Liu¹, Lian-Xiang Luo⁴, Qiu-Yu Xia¹, Sai-Yi Zhong^{1

2}, Yi Qi⁴, Richard J Williams⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Food Science and Technology of Guangdong Ocean University, Guangdong Province Engineering Laboratory for Marine Biological Products, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Marine Food, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Aquatic Product Processing and Safety, Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Innovation Center for Subtropical Fruit and Vegetable Processing, Zhanjiang 524008, Guangdong, China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center of Seafood Deep Processing, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, China.
³ Department of Biology, College of Science, Shantou University, Shantou 515063, China.
⁴ The Marine Biomedical Research Institute, Guangdong Medical University, the Marine Biomedical Research Institute of Guangdong Zhanjiang, Zhanjiang 524023, China.
⁵ IMPACT, School of Medicine, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, VIC 3217, Australia.

Abstract

A preliminary study was conducted of the chemical, structural properties and immunomodulatory activities of fucoidan isolated from Sargassum Zhangii (SZ). Sargassum Zhangii fucoidan (SZF) was determined to have a sulfate content of 19.74 ± 0.01% (w/w) and an average molecular weight of 111.28 kDa. SZF possessed a backbone structure of (1,4)-α-d-linked-galactose, (3,4)-α-l-fucose, (1,3)-α-d-linked-xylose, β-d-linked-mannose and a terminal (1,4)-α-d-linked-glucose. The main monosaccharide composition was determined as (w/w) 36.10% galactose, 20.13% fucose, 8.86% xylose, 7.36% glucose, 5.62% mannose, and 18.07% uronic acids, respectively. An immunostimulatory assay showed that SZF, compared to commercial fucoidans (Undaria pitnnaifida and Fucus vesiculosus sources), significantly elevated nitric oxide production via up-regulation of cyclooxygenase-2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase at both gene and protein levels. These results suggest that SZ has the potential to be a source of fucoidan with enhanced properties that may act as a useful ingredient for functional foods, nutritional supplements, and immune enhancers.

Keywords: Brown algae; Immunomodulatory activities; Polysaccharide; Structural characterization.