Microalgae pigments as a promising immunomodulating food ingredient: In silico study

Microalgae pigments attract the commercial market as functional food ingredients because of their potential as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents. Through in vitro and in vivo studies, microalgae pigments showed a potential therapeutic effect to reduce the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines by inhibiting inflammation signaling. Our study explored the potency of microalgae pigments as an immunomodulator by modeling the direct interaction between pigments and pro-inflammatory proteins by molecular docking. The docking study was carried out using AutoDock Vina. At the same time, the binding visualization was obtained by using Discovery Studio Visualizer. The result showed all investigated microalgae pigments (i.e., phycocyanobilin, astaxanthin, β-carotene, 9- cis - (β-carotene, and violaxanthin) docked to pro-inflammatory proteins (i.e., IL-6, TNF-α, and NIK), respectively in various binding energy. The binding between pigment compounds and the target protein is mostly attributed to the Van der Waals interaction. Notably, the pigments docked in crucial residues in proinflammatory proteins, suggesting the effect of the protein interaction on its receptor and cytokines activity. The results showed a therapeutic potency of microalgae pigment to support immune system modulation that could prevent and attenuate chronic inflammation.