Augmentation of humoral and cellular immunity in response to Tetanus and Diphtheria toxoids by supercritical carbon dioxide extracts of Hippophae rhamnoides L. leaves

Effects of Sea-Buckthorn Flavonoids on Growth Performance, Serum Inflammation, Intestinal Barrier and Microbiota in LPS-Challenged Broilers

The experiment investigated the effects of sea-buckthorn flavonoids (SF) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged broilers. A total of 288 one-day-old male broilers were randomly assigned to 4 groups, with 6 replicates of 12 broilers each. The experiment lasted for 20 days. The diet included two levels of SF (0 or 1000 mg/kg) and broilers intraperitoneally injected with 500 μg/kg LPS on 16, 18, and 20 days, or an equal amount of saline. LPS challenge decreased final body weight, average daily gain, and average daily feed intake, increased feed-to-gain ratio, and elevated serum IL-1β, IL-2, TNF-α, D-LA, and endotoxin levels. Moreover, it resulted in a reduction in the IL-10 level. LPS impaired the intestinal morphology of the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum, down-regulated the mRNA relative expression of Occludin, ZO-1, and MUC-2 in the jejunum mucosa, up-regulated the mRNA relative expression of TLR4, MyD88, NF-κB, and IL-1β, and increased the relative abundance of Erysipelatoclostridium in broilers (p < 0.05). However, SF supplementation mitigated the decrease in growth performance, reduced serum IL-1β, IL-2, and D-LA levels, increased IL-10 levels, alleviated intestinal morphological damage, up-regulated mRNA expression of Occludin and ZO-1, down-regulated the mRNA expression of TLR4, NF-κB, and IL-lβ in jejunum mucosal (p < 0.05), and SF supplementation presented a tendency to decrease the relative abundance of proteobacteria (0.05 < p < 0.1). Collectively, incorporating SF can enhance the growth performance, alleviate serum inflammation, and improve the intestinal health of broilers, effectively mitigating the damage triggered by LPS-challenges.

Optimization of polyphenol extraction from Hippophae salicifolia D. Don leaf using supercritical CO2 by response surface methodology

In this study, an eco-friendly supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) extraction of polyphenolic compounds from Hippophae salicifolia leaf was optimized to achieve the highest extraction yield with maximum total phenolic content (TPC) and minimum IC50. The central composite design was used to establish an experimental design for RSM. The effect of the pressure, temperature, carbon dioxide flow rate, and co-solvent amount was scrutinized using variance analysis (ANOVA). Under optimized condition (25.13 MPa, 47.53 °C, 14.47 g/min, and 2.43%), the experimental data (yield of extraction: 4.38%, TPC: 84.31 mg GAE/g, and IC50: 41.94 µg/mL) showed good agreement with the predicted values (yield of extraction: 4.53%, TPC: 83.37 mg GAE/g, and IC50: 40.2 µg/mL). Nine polyphenolic compounds: gallic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, vanillic acid, p-coumaric acid, quercetin, myricetin, kaempferol, and rutin were analyzed in SC-CO2 extract using HPLC. SC-CO2 extraction was more selective for ferulic acid, myricetin, and quercetin extraction. The study results revealed that SC-CO2 extract had significant antibacterial activity against eight bacterial strains.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-022-03358-1.

BCG vaccination improves DTaP immune responses in mice and is associated with lower pertussis incidence in ecological epidemiological studies

BACKGROUND

The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), the only vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) currently in use, has shown beneficial effects against unrelated infections and to enhance immune responses to vaccines. However, there is little evidence regarding the influence of BCG vaccination on pertussis.

METHODS

Here, we studied the ability of BCG to improve the immune responses to diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular (DTaP) or whole-cell pertussis (DTwP) vaccination in a mouse model. We included MTBVAC, an experimental live-attenuated vaccine derived from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, in our studies to explore if it presents similar heterologous immunity as BCG. Furthermore, we explored the potential effect of routine BCG vaccination on pertussis incidence worldwide.

FINDINGS

We found that both BCG and MTBVAC when administered before DTaP, triggered Th1 immune responses against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis in mice. Immunization with DTaP alone failed to trigger a Th1 response, as measured by the production of IFN-γ. Humoral responses against DTaP antigens were also enhanced by previous immunization with BCG or MTBVAC. Furthermore, exploration of human epidemiological data showed that pertussis incidence was 10-fold lower in countries that use DTaP and BCG compared to countries that use only DTaP.

INTERPRETATION

BCG vaccination may have a beneficial impact on the protection against pertussis conferred by DTaP. Further randomized controlled trials are needed to properly define the impact of BCG on pertussis incidence in a controlled setting. This could be a major finding that would support changes in immunization policies.

FUNDING

This work was supported by the Ministry of "Economía y Competitividad"; European Commission H2020 program, "Gobierno de Aragón"; CIBERES; "Fundação Butantan"; Instituto de Salud Carlos III and "Fondo FEDER".

Compressed fluids and phytochemical profiling tools to obtain and characterize antiviral and anti-inflammatory compounds from natural sources

Many natural compounds, found mainly in plants, are associated with the treatment of various diseases. The search for natural therapeutic agents includes compounds with antiviral and anti-inflammatory activities. Among the many steps involved in bioprospection, extraction is the first and most critical step for obtaining bioactive compounds. One of the main advantages of using compressed fluids extraction is the high quality of the final product obtained due to the use of green solvents, while the selectivity towards target compounds can be tuned by adjusting the process parameters, especially pressure, temperature and solvent characteristics. In this review, a discussion is provided on the power of compressed fluids, such as supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) and subcritical water extraction (SWE) to obtain antiviral and anti-inflammatory compounds from natural sources. In addition, an adequate knowledge about the identity and quantity of the compounds present in the extract is essential to correlate biological activity with chemical composition. Phytochemical profiling tools used for identification and quantification of these bioactive natural compound are also discussed. It can be anticipated that after the current SARS-COV-2 pandemic, the search of new natural compounds with antiviral and anti-inflammatory activity will be a hot research topic, so, this review provides an overview on the technologies currently used that could help this research.

The bioactive components as well as the nutritional and health effects of sea buckthorn

Sea buckthorn (SB), also named sea berry, Hippophae rhamnoides L. or Elaeagnus rhamnoides L., has been used in daily life for centuries with kinds of purposes ranging from a beverage with a pleasant taste and flavor, to an agent for treatment of many disorders and diseases. SB is well known more than just a fruit. So far, a unique mixture of bioactive components was elucidated in SB including flavonoids, phenolic acids, proanthocyanidins, carotenoids, fatty acids, triterpenoids, vitamins and phytosterols, which implied the great medicinal worth of this seaberry. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments, ranged from cell lines to animals as well as a few in patients and healthy volunteers, indicated that SB possessed various biological activities including anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects, antioxidant properties, anti-cancer activities, hepato-protection, cardiovascular-protection, neuroprotection, radioprotection, skin protection effect as well as the protective effect against some eye and gastrointestinal sickness. Furthermore, the toxicological results revealed neither the fruits, nor the seeds of SB were toxic. The present review summarizes the unique profile of the chemical compounds, the nutritional and health effects as well as the toxicological properties of SB, which lay the foundation for practical applications of SB in treatment of human diseases.

Sea buckthorn (SB), also named sea berry, has been used in daily life for centuries with kinds of purposes ranging from a beverage with a pleasant taste and flavor, to an agent for treatment of many disorders and diseases.

Quercetin exhibits adjuvant activity by enhancing Th2 immune response in ovalbumin immunized mice

Quercetin, one of the most abundant of plant flavonoids, has been studied with a great deal of attention over the last several decades mainly for its properties in inflammation and allergy. In this study, we are reporting for the first time the in vivo immunostimulatory activity of quercetin in ovalbumin immunized Balb/c mice. Administration of quercetin (50mg/kg body weight) along with ovalbumin antigen showed increased ovalbumin specific serum IgG antibody titres in comparison to the control group (p<0.05). Quercetin administration not only showed predominance of Th2 immune response by increasing the IgG1 antibody titres, but also increased the infiltration of CD11c⁺ dendritic cells in the mouse peritoneum and also increased LPS activated IL-1β and nitric oxide (NO) production by peritoneal macrophages. Expression of Tbx21, GATA-3 and Oct-2 proteins also enhanced in splenocytes of quercetin administered mice. Quercetin also did not cause any hemolysis in human RBCs. Overall, our findings strongly demonstrate the novel in vivo immunostimulatory and adjuvant potentials of quercetin.