Immunomodulatory activity of acidic polysaccharides isolated from Tanacetum vulgare L.

Abstract

Tanacetum vulgare L. (Tansy) has been extensively used in folk medicine for treatment of a variety of medical disorders. In the present study, we isolated and purified four acidic polysaccharide fractions (designated T-I to T-IV) from Tansy florets by the sequential use of hot-water extraction, ethanol precipitation, ultra-filtration, anion-exchange, and size-exclusion chromatography. The average M r of fractions T-I through T-IV was estimated to be 326, 151, 64 and 9 kDa, respectively, as determined by high performance size-exclusion chromatography analysis. Sugar composition analysis revealed that Tansy polysaccharides consisted primarily of galacturonic acid, galactose, arabinose, and rhamnose. Fractions T-II through T-IV contained an arabinogalactan type II structure, as determined by reaction with Yariv reagent. High M r fractions T-I and T-II exhibited potent macrophage/monocyte-activating activity, enhancing production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), nitric oxide (NO), and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) by J774.A1 murine macrophages, and activating nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) in THP-1 human monocytes. In addition, Tansy polysaccharides stimulated human neutrophil function by greatly enhancing neutrophil myeloperoxidase (MPO) release. Furthermore, the low M r fraction T-IV had potent complementfixing activity, which may also contribute to the anti-inflammatory and would-healing properties of Tansy extracts. Taken together, our results provide a molecular basis to explain at least part of the beneficial therapeutic effects of Tansy extracts, and support the concept of using Tansy polysaccharides as an immunotherapeutic adjuvant.

Structure–function relationships of immunostimulatory polysaccharides: A review

“…528Acetyl groups were identified in AG-II structures displaying macrophage stimulatory 529 activity(Schepetkin et al, 2005;Xie et al, 2007Xie et al, , 2008 and in mixed type I and II structures 530 with stimulatory effect on cytokine production by human peripheral blood mononuclear cells 531(Yin et al, 2012). Additionally, sulfated pectic polysaccharides also showed stimulatory 532 activity on diverse macrophage and neutrophil effector functions, as shown by several 533 sulfated AG-II, with at least 3.4% of sulfate groups.…”

Immunomodulatory effect of a Sophora subprosrate polysaccharide in mice

“…A number of plant-derived polysaccharides have been shown to induce production of TNF-␣ [44,45]. One of the most prominent characteristics of TNF-␣ is its ability to cause apoptosis of tumorassociated endothelial cells, resulting in tumor necrosis [46].…”

In Vitro Antioxidant and Antitumor Activities of Polysaccharides Extracted from the Mycelia of Liquid-Cultured Flammulina velutipes

“…Our results indicated that extracting temperature has significant influence on the yield of the polysaccharides. In most of procedures, polysaccharide was usually extracted at 80℃ (Qin et al, 2002;Xie et al, 2007). The experiments suggested that there was significant difference for yield of the polysaccharides.…”