Purification and immunomodulating activity of C-phycocyanin from Spirulina platensis cultured using power plant flue gas

In this study, flue gas from a power plant smokestack was applied to culture Spirulina platensis microalgae. Our results will not only achieve the fixation of carbon from the emissions, products can also be produced from the algal biomass that possess physiological activities which could be beneficial to human health. An improved one-step process of chromatography was used to produce high-purity C-phycocyanin with a PC ratios >3.5. Adding different concentrations of ammonium sulfate produced different amounts of C-phycocyanin, with 40% generating the highest yield, followed by 35% and 30% concentrations. Immunomodulating activities were evaluated in the murine macrophage cell line J774A.1. We found that C-phycocyanin had the capability to induce secretion of inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6, and that these results were not due to contamination with LPS. Treatment with C-phycocyanin also increased proIL-1β and COX-2 protein expression dose-dependently. Furthermore, C-phycocyanin rapidly stimulated phosphorylation of inflammatory-related signaling molecules, including ERK, JNK, p38 and IκB. In addition, although C-phycocyanin decreased production of LPS-induced ROS, it did not inhibit LPS-induced inflammatory cytokines in J774A.1 cells. This is the first report to show that C-phycocyanin exhibited a detailed molecular mechanism of bioactivity by boosting immunomodulation performance.