Anti-Tumor Activity of a Polysaccharide from Blueberry

• Main Authors: Xiyun Sun, Ning Liu, Zhaoxia Wu, Ying Feng, Xianjun Meng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2015-02-01
• Series: Molecules
• Subjects: blueberry; a bioactive polysaccharide; anti-tumor; immunoregulation
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/20/3/3841

Blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) are rich in bioactive compounds. However, the biological activity of polysaccharides from blueberry has not been reported so far. This study evaluated the anti-tumor and immunological activities of a polysaccharide (BBP3-1) from blueberry in S180-bearing mice. The experimental results indicated that BBP3-1 (100 mg·kg−1·d−1) inhibited the tumor growth rate by 73.4%. Moreover, this group, compared with the model control, had shown an effect of increasing both the spleen and thymus indices (p < 0.05), increasing phagocytosis by macrophages (p < 0.05), boosting the proliferation and transformation of lymphocytes (p < 0.01), promoting the secretion of TNF-α, IFN-γ, and IL-2 (p < 0.05) and improving NK cell activity (p < 0.01). From this study, we could easily conclude that BBP3-1 has the ability to inhibit tumor progression and could act as a good immunomodulator.