Red algae compounds may help fight immune diseases and skin cancer

An international group of scientists — including researchers from Sri Lanka along with Tallinn University, the Institute of Chemical and Biological Physics, and the Estonian University of Life Sciences — has discovered that polysaccharides extracted from the heat-loving marine red algae Gracilaria corticata can affect both mouse and human cells. The findings were reported by the portal Novaator.

The researchers extracted compounds from the algae using both cold and hot alkaline buffer solutions, and found that the processing temperature significantly changes how the resulting compounds behave.

Two distinct effects

Compounds obtained with the cold solution effectively stimulated the immune system, significantly activating protective cells that engulf disease-causing microorganisms and increasing nitric oxide production almost tenfold.

Compounds obtained with the hot solution acted like a kind of "smart healer": they promoted the growth of ordinary skin cells and wound healing, while at the same time attacking dangerous melanoma (skin cancer) cells and slowing their division.

According to the scientists, the cold-solution compounds signal immune cells to attack by altering how the body uses the amino acid arginine. The hot-solution compounds, meanwhile, cause metabolic chaos in cancer cells, disrupting their function, while providing normal skin cells with exactly the energy they need and protecting them from oxidative damage.

Further research needed

Scientists hope these findings could eventually lead to new and safer treatments for both immune system diseases and skin cancer. However, they caution that the current results are based solely on test-tube studies, and it remains unclear whether the algae-derived sugars would behave the same way in a living animal or human body.

The study was published in the journal iScience.