Can krill oil be of use for counteracting neuroinflammatory processes induced by high fat diet and aging?

Marine natural products: potential agents for depression treatment

Depression is a common psychiatric disorder. Due to the disadvantages of current clinical drugs, including poor efficacy and unnecessary side effects, research has shifted to novel natural products with minimal or no adverse effects as therapeutic alternatives. The ocean is a vast ecological home, with a wide variety of organisms that can produce a large number of natural products with unique structures, some of which have neuroprotective effects and are a valuable source for the development of new drugs for depression. In this review, we analyzed preclinical and clinical studies of natural products derived from marine organisms with antidepressant potential, including the effects on the pathophysiology of depression, and the underlying mechanisms of these effects. It is expected to provide a reference for the development of new antidepressant drugs.

Dietary Protection against Cognitive Impairment, Neuroinflammation and Oxidative Stress in Alzheimer's Disease Animal Models of Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Inflammation

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a rapidly growing epidemic with a heavy social and economic burden. Evidence suggests that systemic inflammation, dysregulation of the immune response and the resulting neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration play a significant role in AD pathogenesis. Currently, given that there is no fully convincing cure for AD, the interest in lifestyle factors (such as diet), which potentially delay onset and reduce the severity of symptoms, is increasing. This review is aimed at summarizing the effects of dietary supplementation on cognitive decline, neuroinflammation and oxidative stress in AD-like animal models with a focus on neuroinflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection, which mimics systemic inflammation in animals. The compounds reviewed include curcumin, krill oil, chicoric acid, plasmalogens, lycopene, tryptophan-related dipeptides, hesperetin and selenium peptides. Despite the heterogeneity of these compounds, there is a strong consensus on their counteracting action on LPS-induced cognitive deficits and neuroinflammatory responses in rodents by modulating cell-signaling processes, such as the NF-κB pathway. Overall, dietary interventions could represent an important resource to oppose AD due to their influence in neuroprotection and immune regulation.

Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Marine Bioactive Compounds and Their Potential as Functional Food Ingredients in the Prevention and Treatment of Neuroinflammatory Disorders

Functional foods include enhanced, enriched, fortified, or whole foods that impart health benefits beyond their nutritional value, particularly when consumed as part of a varied diet on a regular basis at effective levels. Marine sources can serve as the sources of various healthy foods and numerous functional food ingredients with biological effects can be derived from these sources. Microalgae, macroalgae, crustaceans, fungi, bacteria fish, and fish by-products are the most common marine sources that can provide many potential functional food ingredients including phenolic compounds, proteins and peptides, and polysaccharides. Neuroinflammation is closely linked with the initiation and progression of various neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, and Parkinson's disease. Activation of astrocytes and microglia is a defense mechanism of the brain to counter damaged tissues and detrimental pathogens, wherein their chronic activation triggers neuroinflammation that can further exacerbate or induce neurodegeneration. Currently, available therapeutic agents only provide symptomatic relief from these disorders and no therapies are available to stop or slow down the advancement of neurodegeneration. Thereffore, natural compounds that can exert a protective effect against these disorders have therapeutic potential. Numerous chemical compounds, including bioactive peptides, fatty acids, pigments, alkaloids, and polysaccharides, have already been isolated from marine sources that show anti-inflammatory properties, which can be effective in the treatment and prevention of neuroinflammatory disorders. The anti-inflammatory potential of marine-derived compounds as functional food ingredients in the prevention and treatment of neurological disorders is covered in this review.

Lipidome reveals the alleviation of krill oil on the impairment of acrylamide

Krill oil has rich content of polyunsaturated fatty acids and various biological functions. Previous researches have demonstrated that krill oil is helpful to improve the locomotion via antioxidation and regulation...

The effect of krill oil on longevity and locomotion: a pilot study

Krill oil as a dietary supplement is popular with consumers. Several experimental and clinical trials have suggested that krill oil is beneficial for longevity and locomotion, but the underlying mechanisms for this have remained largely elusive. In this study, we investigated alleviation of impairment of Caenorhabditis elegans by polar compounds from frying oil with the use of krill oil. Observations of life span and locomotion demonstrated that the intake of krill oil increased median survival by 17.86%, head thrashes by 27.79% and body bends by 20.78% for impaired C. elegans. Metabolomic analysis revealed that krill oil could significantly restore the negative alterations caused by polar compounds, including upregulation of serine, tyrosine, palmitic acid and stearic acid, and downregulation of maltose 6'-phosphate, UDP-glucose, glutamic acid, phosphoserine and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3. Additionally, intake of krill oil also changed some metabolites that were irrelevant to impairment by polar compounds, but were beneficial for health for C. elegans. Metabolomics investigations indicated that krill oil ameliorates energy metabolism and alleviates oxidative stress and excitotoxicity caused by polar compounds on C. elegans. The data obtained in this study will facilitate future functional studies of krill oil.

Essential Fatty Acids as Biomedicines in Cardiac Health

The destructive impact of cardiovascular diseases on health, including heart failure, peripheral artery disease, atherosclerosis, stroke, and other cardiac pathological conditions, positions these health conditions as leading causes of increased global mortality rates, thereby impacting the human quality of life. The considerable changes in modern lifestyles, including the increase in food intake and the change in eating habits, will unavoidably lead to an unbalanced consumption of essential fatty acids, with a direct effect on cardiovascular health problems. In the last decade, essential fatty acids have become the main focus of scientific research in medical fields aiming to establish their impact for preventing cardiovascular diseases and the associated risk factors. Specifically, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), such as omega 3 fatty acids, and monounsaturated fatty acids from various sources are mentioned in the literature as having a cardio-protective role, due to various biological mechanisms that are still to be clarified. This review aims to describe the major biological mechanisms of how diets rich in essential fatty acids, or simply essential fatty acid administration, could have anti-inflammatory, vasodilatory, anti-arrhythmic, antithrombotic, antioxidant, and anti-atherogenic effects. This review describes findings originating from clinical studies in which dietary sources of FAs were tested for their role in mitigating the impact of heart disorders in human health.

Advances in Technologies for Highly Active Omega-3 Fatty Acids from Krill Oil: Clinical Applications

Euphausia superba, commonly known as krill, is a small marine crustacean from the Antarctic Ocean that plays an important role in the marine ecosystem, serving as feed for most fish. It is a known source of highly bioavailable omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid). In preclinical studies, krill oil showed metabolic, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and chemo preventive effects, while in clinical trials it showed significant metabolic, vascular and ergogenic actions. Solvent extraction is the most conventional method to obtain krill oil. However, different solvents must be used to extract all lipids from krill because of the diversity of the polarities of the lipid compounds in the biomass. This review aims to provide an overview of the chemical composition, bioavailability and bioaccessibility of krill oil, as well as the mechanisms of action, classic and non-conventional extraction techniques, health benefits and current applications of this marine crustacean.

Effects of safflower yellow on cholesterol levels in serum and brain tissue of APP/PS1 mice

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an aggressive neurodegenerative disease associated with cognitive decline, memory, language, and visual-spatial coordination disorders that eventually lead to complete loss of basic function. Hypercholesterolemia plays an important role in the pathogenesis of AD and its related diseases. Safflower yellow (SY) is a natural chalcone compound isolated from safflower, which has the effect of antioxidation and weight loss. Previous studies have shown that SY has a significant improvement in learning and memory in various AD model animals. In the early stage of proteomic technology, we found that the cholesterol synthesis rate-limiting enzyme Mevalonate decarboxylase (MVD) was abnormally high in dementia rats, and the expression level of MVD decreased after SY treatment. We speculated that SY may improve the learning and memory ability of AD mice by affecting cholesterol metabolism. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of SY on regulating cholesterol metabolism and improving dementia. The area of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaque in the brain of APP/PS1 mice and various blood biochemical and molecular biological indexes was detected. Through behavioral experiments, we found that APP/ PS1 mice had significant learning and memory impairment compared with wild type mice(P < 0.01). SY (30 mg/kg) treatment for 1 month can significantly improve the learning and memory ability of APP/PS1 mice (P < 0.01). Our results showed that SY decreased serum Total cholesterol (TC) and Triglyceride (TG) and increased the level of High-density lipoprotein (HDL). HE staining obscured that SY affect the changes of liver tissue in APP/PS1 mice (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01). We found that SY reduced the expression of MVD and Apolipoprotein E (APOE4) in the cortex (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01). In summary, SY can effectively control cholesterol in serum and brain and change the degeneration of liver tissue. SY improves Alzheimer's disease by lowering serum, cortex and cortical cholesterol.

Autophagy Plays a Role in the Prolongation of the Life Span of Caenorhabditis elegans by Astaxanthin

Astaxanthin (AST), a xanthophyll belonging to the family of carotenoids, is a potent antioxidant. The effect of AST on longevity and its physiological and molecular mechanism are still unclear. In this study, we proved that AST could prolong the life span of Caenorhabditis elegans. To uncover whether AST could delay aging by upregulating autophagy, we measured the expression of autophagy gene and the life span of autophagy gene bec-1 mutant nematodes, and the results showed that the expression of autophagy gene was upregulated after AST intervention and the disruption of bec-1 weakened the extension of the life span. To explore the molecular mechanism of AST-induced autophagy upregulation, we knocked out the daf-16 or hlh-30 (key genes of insulin/insulin growth factor-1 [IGF-1] signal pathway or target of rapamycin [TOR] signal pathway) by RNA interference, and the expression of autophagy gene lgg-1 decreased. Collectively, our results strongly suggest that autophagy, which is both the insulin/IGF-1 signal pathway dependent and TOR signal pathway dependent, plays a role in the prolongation of the life span of Caenorhabditis elegans by AST.

Preparation and Characterization of Microemulsions Based on Antarctic Krill Oil

Antarctic krill oil is high in nutritional value and has biological functions like anti-inflammation and hypolipidemic effects. But it has and unpleasant smell, and unsaturated fatty acids are prone to oxidative deterioration. Its high viscosity and low solubility in water make it difficult for processing. Microemulsion can be a new promising route for development of krill oil product. We determined a formula of krill oil-in-water microemulsion with krill oil: isopropyl myristate = 1:3 as oil phase, Tween 80:Span 80 = 8:2 as surfactant, ethanol as co-surfactant and the mass ratio of surfactant to co-surfactant of 3:1. After screening the formula, we researched several characteristics of the prepared oil-in-water microemulsion, including electrical conductivity, microstructure by transmission electron microscope and cryogenic transmission electron microscope, droplet size analysis, rheological properties, thermal behavior by differential scanning calorimeter and stability against pH, salinity, and storage time.

Participation of the nucleus accumbens dopaminergic system in the antidepressant-like actions of a diet rich in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids

The beneficial effects of omega (ω)-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplementation on major depressive disorder have been actively studied, but the underlying mechanism remains unknown. The present study examined the involvement of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) dopaminergic systems in behavioral changes in mice fed a diet high in ω-3 PUFAs. Mice fed a diet containing about double the amount of ω-3 PUFAs (krill oil (KO) diet) exerted shorter immobility times in the forced swim test (FST) than mice fed a control diet, containing only α-linolenic acid (ALA) as ω-3 PUFAs. The shorter immobility times were observed in both male and female mice. A dopamine metabolite, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, increased in the NAc in male mice fed the KO diet when compared with those fed the control diet. In addition, dopamine, 3-methoxytyramine, and homovanillic acid increased in the NAc in female mice fed the KO diet. Notably, the effects of the KO diet on the immobility time in the FST were abolished by microinjection of sulpiride, an antagonist of D₂-like receptors, into the NAc. A similar microinjection of an antagonist selective for D₁-like receptors, SKF83566, also abolished the reduction in immobility in the FST. Moreover, we found that tyrosine hydroxylase-positive cells increased in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in mice fed the KO diet. These results suggest that modulation of the VTA-NAc dopaminergic pathway is one of the mechanisms by which a KO diet rich in ω-3 PUFAs reduces the immobility behavior in the mouse FST.

n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Their Derivates Reduce Neuroinflammation during Aging

: Aging is associated to cognitive decline, which can lead to loss of life quality, personal suffering, and ultimately neurodegenerative diseases. Neuroinflammation is one of the mechanisms explaining the loss of cognitive functions. Indeed, aging is associated to the activation of inflammatory signaling pathways, which can be targeted by specific nutrients with anti-inflammatory effects. Dietary n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are particularly attractive as they are present in the brain, possess immunomodulatory properties, and are precursors of lipid derivates named specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPM). SPMs are crucially involved in the resolution of inflammation that is modified during aging, resulting in chronic inflammation. In this review, we first examine the effect of aging on neuroinflammation and then evaluate the potential beneficial effect of n-3 PUFA as precursors of bioactive derivates, particularly during aging, on the resolution of inflammation. Lastly, we highlight evidence supporting a role of n-3 PUFA during aging.