Spheroidization of ultrasonic degraded corn silk polysaccharide to enhance bioactivity by the anti-solvent precipitation method

BACKGROUND: Corn silk is a very important by-product of corn production with medicinal value. Corn silk polysaccharide (CSP) is the main active ingredient. In the present study, ultrasound and spheroidization by anti-solvent were applied to improve the biological activity of CSP. RESULTS: The results showed that ultrasonic degradation improved the alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity of CSP by changing its physicochemical characteristics. As the anti-solvent ratio increased, the particle size of the nanoparticles (NPs) from the spheroidization of ultrasonic-degraded corn silk polysaccharide (UCSP) gradually increased, and NP-1 exhibited the highest inhibitory effect of alpha-glucosidase. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) results indicated that the enhanced activity might be due to more alpha-glucosidase binding sites with NP-1 compared with no spheroidization. Western blotting results showed that NP-1 could improve the 2-[N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl) amino]-2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-NBDG) uptake in the L6 cells by regulating the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signal pathway and the translocation of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4). NP-1 also exhibited excellent stability in different environments. CONCLUSION: The study revealed that ultrasonic treatment and spheroidization processing showed potential applications for improving the biological activity of polysaccharides. (C) 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Automated summary

This study demonstrated that ultrasonic degradation and spheroidization processing can enhance the biological activity of corn silk polysaccharide (CSP), with NP-1 showing the highest alpha-glucosidase inhibitory effect. The improved activity of NP-1 may be attributed to the increased binding sites for alpha-glucosidase. Additionally, NP-1 was found to enhance glucose uptake in cells by regulating the PI3K/Akt signal pathway and GLUT4 translocation.