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Characterization of immunomodulatory activity of proteins of natural honeys

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Abstract

The protein constituent of honey exhibits therapeutic activities in inflammation, and parasitic infections. The biological activities of honey depend on multiple factors such as types of flora, honeybee species, and geographical region. The immunomodulatory activities of proteins of honey of many floral types have not been performed so far. In this study, the proteins composition in seven types of honeys of different flora (Acacia, Thyme, Pine, Khairpur, Chinaberry, Gum tree and Citrus honeys), and geographical regions was determined using gel filtration chromatography (GFC), and their anti-inflammatory activity was studied by determining the inhibition of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in zymogen activated human polymorph nuclear leucocytes (PMNLs). The analysis showed that natural honeys differ in their proteins composition, containing 3–6 proteins fractions. The concentration dependent inhibition of ROS production was observed with precipitated as well as fractionated honey proteins (IC50 0.6–18 ng/mL). The crude proteins of acacia honey exhibited IC50 of 11.3 ng/mL, thyme 5.3 ng/mL, pine 3.1 ng/mL, Khairpur 7.5 ng/mL, and Chinaberry 16.5 ng/mL. Different GFC fractions of honey samples under study also showed significantly low IC50 values in the range of 0.2–9.8 ng/mL. The results of this study show, for the first time, that protein fractions of natural honeys of different botanical flora possess varying yet high potential to suppress ROS production in macrophages, suggesting their tissue protective role by alleviating oxidative stress.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the ICCBS Research Institutions for providing research facilities.

Funding

No grant was received from any funding agency for this work. The study was carried out using the institutional indigenous resources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi, 75270, Pakistan

    Atia Gohar

  2. Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi, 75270, Pakistan

    Nida Dastagir & Almas Jabeen

  3. Department of Biosciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Karachi, 75400, Pakistan

    M. Kamran Azim

Authors
  1. Atia Gohar
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  2. Nida Dastagir
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  3. Almas Jabeen
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  4. M. Kamran Azim
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Contributions

AG: performed experimentation, data acquisition and analysis, manuscript preparation, ND: ROS assay, AJ: manuscript review and intellectual input, MKA: conceived and supervised the study as PI.

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Correspondence to M. Kamran Azim.

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Conflict of interest

All the authors of this study (Atia Gohar, Nida Dastagir, Almas Jabeen, and Muhammad Kamran Azim) declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

The procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (No: ICCBS/IEC-008-BC-2015/Protocol/1.0) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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An informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Gohar, A., Dastagir, N., Jabeen, A. et al. Characterization of immunomodulatory activity of proteins of natural honeys. Food Measure 15, 4475–4481 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11694-021-01033-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11694-021-01033-2

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