Dietary Curcumin Promotes Gilthead Seabream Larvae Digestive Capacity and Modulates Oxidative Status

The effects of dietary Spirulina platensis or curcumin nanoparticles on performance, body chemical composition, blood biochemical, digestive enzyme, antioxidant and immune activities of Oreochromis niloticus fingerlings

CONTEXT

Recently, prioritize has been given to using natural phytogenic or nano compounds as growth promoters and immunostimulants in fish diets as an alternative to antibiotics.

AIMS

The main propose of this trial was to determine the impact of supplementing diets with spirulina or curcumin nanoparticles on the performance and health indicators of Nile tilapia fingerlings.

METHODS

In a 56-day feeding trial, 180 tilapia fingerlings were assigned into three main groups, as follows: 1st, control group, 2nd, Spirulina platensis (SP; 5 g kg-1 diet) and 3rd, curcumin nanoparticles (CUR-NPs; 30 mg kg-1 diet).

KEY RESULTS

Incorporating tilapia diets with SP or CUR-NPs significantly improved performance, body chemical analysis, blood biochemical and hematological indices, digestive enzyme activities, and antioxidant and immunostimulant features compared to the control.

CONCLUSION

Fortified tilapia diets with CUR-NPs or SP efficiently boost the productivity and health of Nile tilapia fingerlings.

IMPLICATIONS

The research introduces new practical solutions for applying safe feed additives as alternatives to antibiotics in tilapia farming.

Dietary inclusion of Withania somnifera and Asparagus racemosus induces growth, activities of digestive enzymes, and transcriptional modulation of MyoD, MyoG, Myf5, and MRF4 genes in fish, Channa punctatus

The present study explores growth potential of two medicinal herbs, Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha or 'A') and Asparagus racemosus (Shatavari or 'S') after their dietary inclusion in fish, Channa punctatus (13.5 ± 2 g; 11.5 ± 1 cm). Three hundred well-acclimatized fish were distributed into 10 groups- C (Control), S1 (1% S), S2 (2% S), S3 (3% S), A1 (1% A), A2 (2% A), A3 (3% A), AS1 (1% A and S), AS2 (2% A and S), and AS3 (3% A and S), each having 10 specimens. Fish were fed with these diets for 60 days. The study was performed in triplicate. Growth indices- weight gain (WG), specific growth rate percentage (SGR%), feed intake (FI), and condition factor (CF), after 30 and 60 days, were found significantly (p < 0.05) up-regulated in all the groups, except S1, when compared to the C. A significant (p < 0.05) increase in final body weight (FBW) was noticed in all the groups, except S1, after 60 days. Relative to the control group, activities of lipase and amylase in the gut tissue were elevated in all groups, at both sampling times, with the exception of lipase in S1 at 60 days, and amylase in S1 at day 30 and day 60 and S2 at day 60. The mRNA expression of myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs) was also found to be significantly (p < 0.05) up-regulated with the highest fold changes recorded in AS3 for myoD (3.93 ± 0.91); myoG (6.71 ± 0.30); myf5 (4.40 ± 0.33); MRF4 (4.94 ± 0.21) in comparison to the C.

Curcumin as a Potential Antioxidant in Stress Regulation of Terrestrial, Avian, and Aquatic Animals: A Review

Stress has brought about a variety of harmful impacts on different animals, leading to difficulties in the management of animal husbandry and aquaculture. Curcumin has been recognized as a potential component to ameliorate the adverse influence of animal stress induced by toxicity, inflammation, diseases, thermal effect, and so on. In detail, this compound is known to offer various outstanding functions, including antibacterial properties, antioxidant effects, immune response recovery, and behavioral restoration of animals under stress conditions. However, curcumin still has some limitations, owing to its low bioavailability. This review summarizes the latest updates on the regulatory effects of curcumin in terms of stress management in terrestrial, avian, and aquatic animals.

Dietary Strategies to Modulate the Health Condition and Immune Responses in Gilthead Seabream (Sparus aurata) Juveniles Following Intestinal Inflammation

Simple Summary

Feed additives are known to have biological proprieties that can improve fish health. This work assessed the effect of two feed additives (Phaeodactylum tricornutum extracts rich in β-glucans and curcumin) on the gilthead seabream health condition, and its modulatory effects following dextran sodium sulphate (DSS) administration as a chemical inducer of intestinal inflammation. While minor immune-enhancing changes were observed among fish fed dietary treatments at the end of the feeding trial, after the inflammatory stimulus, the feed additives were able to alleviate, to some extent, the DSS-induced effects at both the intestinal and systemic levels.

Abstract

Several feed additives have proved to be beneficial in eliciting fish health. Β-glucans and curcumin are compounds with immunomodulatory capacities known to increase growth performance, stimulate immunity, improve general health, and enhance disease resistance in fish. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary Phaeodactylum tricornutum extracts rich in β-glucans and curcumin on gilthead seabream health status prior to and following an intestinal inflammatory stimulus. Three experimental diets were formulated: a practical commercial-type diet (CTRL), a CTRL diet supplemented with 1% microalgae-derived β-glucans extract (BG), and a CTRL diet supplemented with 0.2% of curcumin (CUR). After 30 days of the feeding trial, fish were sampled and subjected to an oral administration of 1% dextran sodium sulphate (DSS) to induce intestinal inflammation. Four groups were considered: a group of fish continued to be fed on the CTRL diet while the remaining groups were exposed to DSS, including CTRL-D (CTRL + DSS), BG-D (BG + DSS), and CUR-D (CUR + DSS), for 6 days. Growth, plasma and gut humoral immunity, liver and gut oxidative stress biomarkers, and intestinal gene expression were evaluated. No significant differences were found in growth after 30 days of feeding; however, seabream fed BG had decreased anti-protease activity and nitric oxide concentration in plasma while those fed CUR had increased mRNA levels of the tnfα, csf1r, and hep genes compared to those fed CTRL. After the inflammatory stimulus, hematocrit was enhanced in fish fed BG-D and CUR-D while red blood cell counts increased in those fed CTRL-D. Superoxide dismutase activity decreased in the intestine of all DSS groups while lipid peroxidation increased in the gut of fish fed CTRL-D and BG-D compared to CTRL. Moreover, the mRNA expression levels of csfr1 and sod decreased in fish fed CTRL-D and BG-D compared to CTRL, respectively. Despite the mild intestinal inflammatory condition induced by DSS, CUR was able to partially ameliorate its effects, improving the hematological profile and assisting against the oxidative stress.

Sustainable Aquaculture: Nutrition Studies in Early Developing Finfish, Ornamentals and Experimental Model Fish

Enhancing the knowledge of feeding/nutritional requirements is key in the growth of fish development and for the optimization of rearing techniques [...]

Curcumin sensitizes response to cytarabine in acute myeloid leukemia by regulating intestinal microbiota

Purpose

To address whether Curcumin has synergistic effect with cytarabine (Ara-C) in treating acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Methods

A xenograft AML mouse model was established by injecting HL-60 cells into tail vein of mice to assess the function of Curcumin. Mononuclear cells (MNCs) isolated from AML mice and AML cell lines were used to examine the effect of Curcumin. Metagenomics and metabolomics were used to evaluate the alteration of intestinal microbiota and the change of metabolites in MNCs.

Results

Curcumin treatment sensitized response to Ara-C in MNCs of AML mice, but had no direct effect on AML cell lines. Metagenomics revealed an alteration of intestinal microbiota with Curcumin treatment, which contributes to sensitized response to Ara-C. Curcumin treatment led to enhanced intestinal intact to sensitize response to Ara-C in AML mice, through reducing mucus degrading bacteria. Metabolomics demonstrated that Curcumin treatment led to decreased cholesterol in MNCs of AML mice. Further study proved that Curcumin treatment resulted in inhibition of SQLE, a key enzyme of cholesterol biosynthesis, to increase sensitivity to Ara-C.

Conclusion

Curcumin sensitizes response to Ara-C through regulating microbiota, highlighting the importance of intestinal intact strengthening in chemoresistant therapy. Moreover, aiming at cholesterol synthesis is promising in AML treatment.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00280-021-04385-0.