Spirulina's digestive products can promote vasodilation and lower blood pressure

Spirulina's digestive products can promote vasodilation and lower blood pressure

When taking a physical examination, blood pressure is almost a required item. Be careful when you detect high blood pressure. Because chronic hypertension is a major risk factor for coronary artery disease, stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, peripheral vascular disease, decreased vision, chronic kidney disease and dementia.

As early as 2018, a sample survey of 450,000 people conducted by the Beijing Fuwai Hospital team across the country showed that according to China's current blood pressure of more than 140 / 90mmHg as the hypertension standard, there were as many as 244 million people with hypertension nationwide. (23.2%).

If the new version of the clinical guidelines for hypertension published by the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC) in 2017 lowers the threshold for hypertension to 130 / 80mmHg, then the number of hypertension patients in China has exceeded 500 million. Astonishing!

Fortunately, a recent study has brought us good news. A team led by Italian scientist Carmine Vecchione revealed the molecular mechanism of an increasingly popular "superfood"-spirulina blood pressure.

Studies have found that this function of lowering blood pressure comes from a short peptide, SP6, produced after spirulina is digested. This SP6 can stimulate endothelial cells to release the signal molecule NO, which can mediate the relaxation of blood vessels and play a role in lowering blood pressure. The research results are published in the famous medical journal Hypertension.

Professor Carmine Vecchione (left)

What needs to be reminded here is that we have seen various advertisements boasting that spirulina has many magical functions, such as "the nutritional value of one gram of spirulina is equal to the nutritional sum of one kilogram of vegetables and fruits". Definitely false, don't believe it.

Different foods provide different nutrients, which meet the needs of the human body for various nutrients. No food is elixir, and a balanced diet is a reasonable choice. However, although it is not as magical as blowing, Spirulina does have its advantages.

Spirulina and other foods are popular because people find that they contain some special biologically active substances that can improve chronic diseases caused by long-term bad living and dietary habits, including cardiovascular diseases that pose the greatest threat to health.

Previous studies have pointed out that spirulina can improve cardiovascular disease, and this function may come from the short peptides left after digestion by the gastrointestinal tract. However, due to the ever-changing sequence of amino acid peptides, it is not clear which short peptide is at work.

Dr Carmine Vecchione decided to find out and find this small molecule that can protect human health. The Carmine team built an in vitro human gastrointestinal digestion (GID) model to simulate the digestive environment of spirulina in the human body. After spirulina was digested, the researchers tested the effects of these digestive products in a mouse model. It was confirmed that spirulina does have the function of relaxing blood vessels and lowering blood pressure, and the larger the dose of spirulina digestion, the better the effect.

In vitro GID model

When the researchers removed endothelial cells from mouse blood vessels, the effect was gone. This shows that spirulina digestion may achieve vasodilation by targeting vascular endothelial cells. Moreover, when researchers used a small molecule inhibitor to inhibit nitric oxide (NO) synthase (eNOS) in endothelial cells, the vasodilation function of spirulina digests was also blocked.

They used liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry to analyze the sequence of the peptides in the digestion, and finally found a functional peptide in the spirulina digestion product, named it SP6.

When using SP6 alone for experiments, it was found that only SP6 can replace the spirulina digestion to complete the blood pressure lowering effect. The researchers administered 10 mg / kg of SP6 to mice with hypertension, and found that systolic blood pressure was significantly reduced after 4-8 hours. This was also proved by hemodynamic experiments. After 4 hours of oral administration of SP6, the blood pressure of the mesenteric artery was significantly reduced. Also, the more SP6 you take, the better the antihypertensive effect.

The effect of SP6 is obvious

After knocking out NO synthase (eNOS) in endothelial cells, SP6 is unable to work, indicating that the blood pressure-lowering function of SP6 is related to NO metabolism.

Subsequently, the researchers blocked several signaling pathways upstream of eNOS with small molecule inhibitors, and found that when the PI3K / AKT pathway was blocked, SP6 could no longer function. When SP6 was administered to mice, the PI3K / AKT / eNOS signal pathway was activated in mesenteric arteries by Western detection, which increased the release of NO.

NO is a star molecule in the human body. It can transmit specific biological signals to cells, control the relaxation and expansion of blood vessels, and control blood flow. The discovery of the function of NO has played an important role in the treatment of human cardiovascular disease, and Dr. Louis Ignarro was also awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine .

This study clearly confirmed at the molecular level that after the spirulina is digested in the gastrointestinal tract, the peptide SP6 produced can activate the PI3K / AKT / eNOS signaling pathway, increase the production and release of NO, and thus can regulate vasodilation.

The molecular mechanism by which SP6 works

The authors point out that dysregulation of NO metabolism in the human body is closely related to cardiovascular disease. Considering that SP6 is derived from food, it has unparalleled advantages in accessibility and safety, so it is of great significance for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Of course, the author also said that this study has some limitations. Considering that SP6 is affected by metabolism and excretion in animals, 10 mg / kg may not be an optimal dose, and further exploration and optimization are needed.

High blood pressure is a serious threat to people's health. In many cases, high blood pressure is caused by bad living habits, including excessive salt consumption, being overweight, smoking, and drinking. Therefore, adjusting lifestyle habits is an important means of treating hypertension and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.  Of course, antihypertensive drugs must be taken when necessary.  For modern people, everyone has to work hard for life, and sometimes it is difficult to adjust their habits. The research in this article   may provide us with another option.

However, before that, everyone should keep their wallets safe, and don't be fooled by the health product traffickers.