Natural polysaccharides are an important class of macromolecules that can profoundly affect the immune system and, therefore, show the potential for use as immunomodulators with broad clinical applications [1]. Cinamomum camphora has been shown to possess a lot of biological activities, including antifungal, antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-allergic, and anti-inflammatory activities [2-3]. However, little research has been reported on the C. camphora fruit polysaccharides (CCFP). Therefore the objectives of this study were to isolate and characterize the polysaccharides from C. camphora and to evaluatef its immunomodulatory activities on RAW264.7 macrophages in vivo. The results indicated that CCFP has an average molecular weight of 2.53×105 Da and is mainly composed of rhamnose, arabinose and galactose in a molar ratio of 1:3.75:4.56. CCFP significantly increased the concentrations of intracellular nitric oxide (NO) and cytokines, such as prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in RAW 264.7 cells. The result of RT-PCR analysis indicated that CCFP also enhanced inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and TNF-α expression. Further analyses demonstrated that CCFP rapidly activated the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and the transcriptional activities of activator protein-1 (AP-1) and nuclear factor (NF)-κB via toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Taken together, these results suggest that CCFP can improve immunity, and could be explored as a potential immunomodulatory agent.
References. 1. Yang S, Zhuang T, Si Y, et al. Mol Immunol 2015, 64(1): 144-151.
2. Jiang H, Wang J, Song L, et al. Molecules 2016, 21(4): 423-432.
3. Pragadheesh V S, Saroj A, Yadav A, et al. Ind Crop Prod , 2013, 49: 628-633.
This work was funded by the Science Foundation for Young Doctors of Jiangxi academy of science (2016-YYB-07), the Science and Technology Major Project Foundation of Jiangxi Academy of Sciences (2018-YZD2-18) . Foundation of Key Project of Research and Development Program of Jiangxi Province (No. 20171BBH80017)