In recent years we have heard about the beneficial effect of fatty acids , especially omega-3s that we take in the diet. We know that they regulate cholesterol and triglyceride levels, prevent the formation of blood clots, lower blood pressure in hypertensive patients and prevent heart attacks, strokes and angina pectoris. However, their role as anticancer and anti-inflammatory is less known, therefore, in this article, we will focus on this important role.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids are lipid compounds or “good fats” found primarily in vegetables such as lettuce, soybeans, spinach, strawberries, cucumber, cabbages, almonds, and walnuts . They are also found in blue fish – tuna, salmon, sardines, trout – and in shellfish such as cockles and mussels. In addition, in recent years, scientists have found in microalgae an important source of fatty acids beneficial to human health.
Microalgae are photosynthetic unicellular organisms that we can find in water, both fresh and salty. Due to the environment in which they live, they have had to learn to adapt continuously to the changing conditions of the environment that surrounds them – changes in light, temperature, competition for food – and, for this, they produce a series of substances called metabolites, among those that emphasize fatty acids. Among them are a series of oxidized fatty acids, called oxilipines, which in microalgae have the main defense function against predators. In addition, researchers have demonstrated the curious role of vegetable and microalgae oxilipins as anticancer and anti-inflammatory in animal tissues through their continued consumption .
Inflammation has been a process studied for centuries, but it is only a little over a decade ago that researchers, thanks to advances in technology, have begun to understand which are the molecules that coordinate this process as effective as it is fascinating. The molecules we are talking about are derived from fatty acids, mainly omega-3, that we take in the diet and that, once processed, give rise to different types of oxilipines that are responsible for both initiating and resolving the inflammatory process. On the other hand, the microalgae biomass discarded by the biodiesel industry or the cultivation in microalgae bioreactors is a source of a multitude of beneficial molecules suitable for both animal and human consumption, where anti-oxidant, anti-carcinogenic and anti-inflammatory as active molecules in the metabolism of the consuming organism.
At present, microalgae products are taking an important role as dietary supplements due to their high protein and vitamin content. All this, together with the high production of bio-active fatty acids, makes microalgae a perfect nutraceutical: a product that provides nutrients in the diet while having the ability to act as a drug helping to control acute inflammatory processes, as occurs in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (ulcerative colitis and Chron’s disease).
Francisco Javier Ávila Román belongs to the Molecular and Applied Pharmacology Research Group. Sevilla University. Article written in collaboration with the UCC + i of the University of Seville. Images provided by the Department of Biotechnology of the Technological Institute of the Canary Islands (ITC).
