The prevalence of ulcerative colitis (UC) is increasing annually, while current non-targeted drugs for UC have limited effectiveness, easily relapsed, and serious side effects. Herein, curcumin (Cur)-loaded nanoparticle with conlon-targeted property based on Mesona chinensis polysaccharides was developed for the synergistic and targeted improvement of UC. Results show that ZmNPs have good encapsulation of Cur, targeted delivery of Cur to the colon, and prolonged its retention time. In vivo safety assessments have shown that ZmNPs have good safety and biocompatibility. As expected, Cur-ZmNPs effectively alleviated the symptoms of DSS-induced UC by decreasing colonic inflammation by inhibiting the TLR4/MAPK pathway, regulating the levels of oxidative stress and immune homeostasis of UC mice. Oral administration of Cur-ZmNPs can reduce apoptosis of intestinal epithelial cells, alleviate colonic mucosal damage and repair intestinal barrier function. Cur-ZmNPs also had a positive effect on improving gut microbiota disorders and promoting the production of SCFAs. This study provides a novel strategy for synergistic alleviation of UC by MCP-based NPs loaded with food bioactives.

Cyclocarya paliurus (Batalin) Iljinskaja (C. paliurus), as a unique and rare monocotyledonous plant in Southern China, is a promising and economical Chinese herbal medicine and functional food. People have conducted a number of research on C. paliurus because of its rich triterpenoids. However, no comprehensive review has illustrated the composition and pharmacological activity of triterpenoids from C. paliurus. This review summarizes 177 triterpenoids from different parts of C. paliurus. The structures of compounds were elucidated, and their biosynthesis was inferred. The biological activities of compounds and triterpenoid-rich extracts, including anti-diabetes, antihyperlipidemia, anti-inflammatory, anticancer or cytotoxicity, antioxidation, etc, were discussed. C. paliurus can be an important and valuable supplement to the food market. This review provides a reference for the further research and application of C. paliurus triterpenoids in the fields of foods and pharmaceuticals.

Intestinal oxidation-reduction balance is essential to protect host health. Research on the underlying mechanisms of oxidation homeostasis can provide conditions to the treatment or protection of intestinal oxidative stress. Therefore, the mechanism of polysaccharide (MBP) with alkali-extracted from mung bean skin in alleviating oxidative damage induced by H₂O₂-induced in Intestinal epithelial cells (IEC)-6 cells was explored. Results indicated that MBP effectively mitigated the H₂O₂-induced decrease in IEC-6 cell viability, restored superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, lowered malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS) level. Western blotting showed that MBP may mitigate oxidative damage through NF-κB, MAPK and Nrf2 signaling pathway, and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis confirmed that MBP can protect cells by regulating MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways. Moreover, the results of the inhibitor experiment also support the above hypothesis. These results verified that MBP has the capacity to mitigate oxidative damage induced by H₂O₂ in IEC-6 cells through MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathway. The study showed that MBP can assist preventing intestinal diseases relating to oxidative stress, which could facilitate the development of functional foods.

The biological activity of plant polysaccharides can be enhanced by sulfated modification. In this study, the immunomodulatory effect of sulfated Cyclocarya paliurus polysaccharides (SCP3) on macrophages RAW264.7 and its potential molecular mechanism were investigated. Results showed that SCP3 at 25−100 μg/mL increased viability and improved phagocytosis of RAW264.7 cells. Meanwhile, SCP3 could activate mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathways, which increased the phosphorylation of Erk1/2, JNK, p38 and NF-κB p65, promoting secretion of cytokines tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and nitric oxide (NO) as well as the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In addition, Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) receptor inhibitors were able to block the production of NO and TNF-α by SCP3-stimulated macrophages. Based on Western blot analysis and validation using specific inhibitors against MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways, the results demonstrated that SCP3 induced macrophages activation and enhanced TNF-α and NO production via TLR4-mediated MAPK and NF-κB pathways. In summary, SCP3 has significant immunomodulatory potential. The underlying molecular mechanism was that SCP3 activates macrophages via TLR4 receptors to promote ROS production, which in turn activates the downstream MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway and then increases the secretion levels of cytokines and NO.

In this study, the antitumor properties and the possible molecular mechanisms of Cyclocarya paliurus polysaccharide (CP) and its phosphorylated derivative (P-CP) on CT-26 mouse colon carcinoma cells were investigated. Results found that CP had high inhibition ratio against CT-26 cells. The flow cytometry results found that CP treatment could cause the intracellular acidification, arrest the cell cycle in the S phase and increase reactive oxygen species generation. Additionally, CP treatment triggered mitochondrial membrane potential depolarization and Ca²⁺ overloading, and broke down the balance of antioxidant system, Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase and Ca²⁺-ATPase. Further analysis found CP induced cell apoptosis through improving the activities of caspase-3 and caspase-9, and increasing the level of cytochrome C. Furthermore, the comparative study of antitumor effect on CT-26 cells displayed that the phosphorylation enhanced antitumor activities of polysaccharides. These results suggest CP is a potential natural therapeutic agent for colon cancer and phosphorylation represents an effective method of enhancing the antitumor activity of CP.

In this study, chondroitin sulfate was extracted from Oreochromis niloticus bones (OCS) and isolated to three fractions (OCS-1, OCS-2, and OCS-3). The physicochemical properties and structure characterization including monosaccharide, disaccharide compositions, molecular weight (Mw) of OCS were determined by HPAEC, HPLC-SAX, HPGPC, FT-IR spectra, and 1D/2D NMR. Moreover, their thermal properties, crystalline structure, and microstructure were also analyzed. Results showed that their Mw were between 10 kDa and 50 kDa. CS-6 was the predominant disaccharide unit in four OCS, and the CS-4/CS-6 ratios were close to CS from shark cartilage. Besides, the results of antioxidant activity showed that different fractions of OCS had a distinct DPPH radical, hydroxyl radical, and ABTS⁺ radical scavenging activity. OCS-1 has the highest scavenging activities in DPPH and hydroxyl radical compared with other fractions, which showed a higher medicinal value. Those findings may lay some theoretical basis for the potential application development of OCS.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the improvement effect of Mesona chinensis Benth polysaccharide (MP) on cyclophosphamide (CTX) induced liver injury in mice. To explore metabolic profile of liver tissue and feces among normal group, CTX-induced group and MP management group based on metabolomics method by using UPLC-Q-TOF/MS. The results showed that MP could alleviate liver injury and promote the production of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), with the best dose of 200 mg/kg·body weight (bw). The principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) scores plots of the liver and feces samples showed a clear separation among normal, model and high-dose of MP (MPH). There were 18 endogenous metabolites in liver and 29 endogenous metabolites in feces, which were mainly involved in 8 metabolic pathways: taurine and hypotaurine metabolism, phenylalanine metabolism, α-linolenic acid metabolism, tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis, arachidonic acid metabolism, sphingolipid metabolism as well as tryptophan metabolism. Moreover, a common metabolite arachidonic acid was observed in liver and feces samples. These endogenous metabolites may be considered to be MP's response to liver protection. It will help to further understand the mechanism of MP and provide a basis for further research.

There are a number of health benefits of Mesona chinensis Benth polysaccharide (MP), but little is known about its hepatoprotective effect and effect on gut microbiota composition in mice with liver damage induced by cyclophosphamide (CTX). This study indicated that MP supplementation effectively inhibited the production of serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), enhanced liver antioxidant capacity and repaired liver damage in mice caused by CTX. The release of inflammatory cytokines in liver and the concentration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in serum were decreased, and the level of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in colon was increased after MP administration. Those effects may be correlated with the regulation of the gut microbiota. Importantly, MP restrained liver inflammatory responses induced by CTX may via increasing the SCFAs-producing bacteria family Ruminococcaceae and reduced LPS-producing bacteria genus Bacteroides. In short, the prevention of CTX-induced liver injury by supplementing MP is achieved at least in part by regulating the community structure of the gut microbiota, and MP is expected to be a potential prebiotic to treat and prevent liver diseases.