Immunomodulatory effects of vinegar-egg juice: Potential pharmacological effects of a traditional Chinese food remedy?

ABSTRACT

Thousands of years of historical practice have proven that the ancient Chinese food, vinegar-egg juice, has immune-boosting effects with the presence of many nutritional factors. However, its mechanism of action in the body remains unclear. In this research project, vinegar-egg juice was chosen to analyze its immune-enhancing effects on mice. The immune enhancing effects of egg, vinegar and vinegar egg juice on lymphocytes of mouse spleen were compared. The effects on immune function of mice were analyzed by studying the organ index, natural killer(NK) cell activity, lymphocyte transformation function and cytokine changes in immune organs after treatment with vinegar-egg juice. The mechanism of immune enhancement was speculated by analyzing the changes of total IKKα/ß/IκBα/NF-κB and its phosphorylated protein kinase by Western blot. Experiments have shown that vinegar and eggs have less immune regulation than vinegar-egg juice. Vinegar-egg juice can regulate the cellular and humoral immunity of spleen lymphocytes, increase the phosphorylated kinases of IKKα/ß, reduce the total protein expression of IκBα, and activate the signaling pathway of IKK/IκB/NF-κB. In addition, compared with the control group, vinegar-egg juice reduced the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio and increased the relative abundance of beneficial bacteria. Furthermore, vinegar-egg juice can raise phosphatidylserine (PS) and serotonin (5-HT) levels in the body. The results showed that the vinegar-egg juice had obvious immunomodulatory activity. It was speculated that the intake of vinegar-egg juice can increase the activity of NK cells, T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes by increasing 5-HT levels, ultimately enhancing the body's immune function. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS In this work, we evaluated the immune regulation of vinegar, egg and vinegar-egg juice in mice. In addition, we investigated the effects of vinegar-egg juice on gut microbiota. And combined with the composition of the vinegar-egg juice, it was found that the intake of vinegar-egg juice could increase the activity of NK cells, T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes by increasing 5-HT levels, ultimately enhancing the body's immune function. On the basis of the results of this study, we recommend vinegar-egg juice can be a potential health food to resist the epidemic and improve autoimmunity in special times of the novel coronavirus outbreak.