Immunomodulatory effect of a nutraceutical mixture in a mouse model of metabolic syndrome

Abstract

COVID-19 has impacted global community since its appearance in December 2019, with consequences in health, economic, employment, among many others that have created scenarios known as “new normality”. Along pharmacological measures, preventive ones have also been proposed including the change of diet patterns, increasing physical activities and others. In this work, nutraceuticals are explored for assessing their potential as COVID-19 preventers that could extrapolate to other new diseases or pandemics. Specifically, a nutraceutical mixture was tested in C57BL/6J mice, which is a model for obesity and metabolic syndrome, to evaluate immunomodulation potential by measuring the effect on blood indicators and immune biomarkers. Nutraceuticals evaluated include vitamins (C, D and E), minerals (selenium and zinc) and other ingredients as coenzyme Q10, microencapsulated probiotics, broccoli sprout powder and black bean coat flour as sources of sulforaphane and flavonoids, respectively. All of them have been widely studied and attributed with immunomodulatory properties, each one of them are explained and detailed in the second chapter. Results of blood indicators show a low effect on blood cells concentration and lipid profile, with no consistent differences between male and female individuals. No significant effect was determined in coagulation time. Some of the observed changes such as increase of erythrocytes and leukocyte in males of the supplemented group may suggest a heterogeneous effect between male and female mice, but more studies would be needed. While no significant effects were observed in lymphocyte-T analysis, the most relevant result was obtained in IL-1 evaluation, which level significantly increased in the obese-no supplemented group in comparison with the healthy group, but the increase was countered and even got to lower levels compared to healthy mice when the nutraceutical supplement was included in the diet. This result may suggest a higher effect of the nutraceuticals in inflammation processes rather than in blood cell levels.