Author(s):
Matos, Melanie S. ; Anastácio, José D. ; Allwood, J. William ; Carregosa, Diogo ; Marques, Daniela ; Sungurtas, Julie ; McDougall, Gordon J. ; Menezes, Regina ; Matias, Ana A. ; Stewart, Derek ; Dos Santos, Cláudia Nunes
Date: 2020
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/109482
Origin: Repositório Institucional da UNL
Subject(s): 11β,13-dihydrolactucin; 11β,13-dihydrolactucopicrin; Calcineurin; Lactucin; Lactucopicrin; NFAT; Food Science; Nutrition and Dietetics; SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Description
Funding: This research and the article processing cost were funded by EU Horizon 2020 research & innovation programme under grant agreement N. 760891 project CHIC. M.S.M. also acknowledges the financial support from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia for her PhD scholarship (SFRD/BD/145551/2019).
Cichorium intybus L. has recently gained major attention due to large quantities of health-promoting compounds in its roots, such as inulin and sesquiterpene lactones (SLs). Chicory is the main dietary source of SLs, which have underexplored bioactive potential. In this study, we assessed the capacity of SLs to permeate the intestinal barrier to become physiologically available, using in silico predictions and in vitro studies with the well-established cell model of the human intestinal mucosa (differentiated Caco-2 cells). The potential of SLs to modulate inflammatory responses through modulation of the nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT) pathway was also evaluated, using a yeast reporter system. Lactucopicrin was revealed as the most permeable chicory SL in the intestinal barrier model, but it had low anti-inflammatory potential. The SL with the highest anti-inflammatory potential was 11β,13-dihydrolactucin, which inhibited up to 54% of Calcineurin-responsive zinc finger (Crz1) activation, concomitantly with the impairment of the nuclear accumulation of Crz1, the yeast orthologue of human NFAT.
