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Planta Med 2023; 89(15): 1483-1492
DOI: 10.1055/a-2156-4653
Biological and Pharmacological Activity
Original Papers

Immulina as an Immunostimulatory Supplement: Formulation and Pharmacological Studies

Authors

  • Yusheng Li‡

    1   Department of Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, USA

  • Nan Ji‡

    1   Department of Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, USA

  • Minia Wang‡

    1   Department of Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, USA

  • Nirmal D. Pugh

    2   National Center for Natural Products Research, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, USA

  • Ikhlas A. Khan

    2   National Center for Natural Products Research, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, USA
    3   Department of BioMolecular Sciences, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, USA

  • Chalet Tan 

    4   Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

This work was supported by the Office of Dietary Supplements and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) of the National Institutes of Health [U19AT010838].
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Abstract

Immulina is a commercially available extract of Arthrospira platensis enriched with bacterial lipoproteins that acts as a potent Toll-like receptor 2 agonist. However, the immunostimulatory effect of Immulina is not well understood in vivo. Here, to devise an Immulina formulation suitable for in vivo oral gavage dosing, Immulina nanosuspension was prepared and freeze-dried to yield lyophilized nano-Immulina, which had an average particle size of around 300 nm and fully retained the bioactivity as a Toll-like receptor 2 agonist. Compared to the regular Immulina powder, lyophilized nano-Immulina notably accelerated the dissolution in aqueous media. Immulina nanosuspension was found to stimulate the production of proinflammatory cytokines in murine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells and macrophages. The immune response to Immulina was investigated in healthy mice by longitudinally monitoring the phagocytic activity of circulating neutrophils as a surrogate marker. Following daily oral ingestion of Immulina nanosuspension (10 mg/mouse/day), the phagocytic activity of circulating neutrophils was significantly elevated, suggesting an important mechanism for Immulina to enhance innate immunity.

Key words

Arthrospira platensis - Phormidiaceae - Immulina - TLR2 - dissolution - neutrophil - phagocytosis

Supporting Information

    Information on the physical appearance of Immulina formulations, the purity of murine BMMs and BMDCs, the gating strategy for the flow cytometry analysis on circulating neutrophils, the immunophenotypic analysis on leukocytes in heparinized whole blood, and the primer sequences for qPCR analysis is available as Supporting Information.

  • Supporting Information (PDF)


Publication History

Received: 28 April 2023

Accepted after revision: 11 August 2023

Article published online:
30 August 2023

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