Natural sugars injected with seaweed sugar speed up the immune system's ability to clean up cells.

Researchers have long been looking for ways to use their immune systems to fight diseases, such as cancer.
now, scientists have found that the immune system can be triggered to treat atherosclerosis and other metabolic diseases, including fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.
at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., have found that a natural sugar called seaweed sugar accelerates the immune system's ability to clean up cells.
this enhanced clean-up ability can reduce the formation of atherosclerotic plaques.
these plaques are one of the hallmarks of cardiovascular disease, triggering a risk of heart disease.
study was published June 7 in Nature Communications (click on the bottom left corner to read the original text).
Babak Razani, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of New England, said: "We are very interested in enhancing the ability of macrophages to clean up cell waste and want to turn them into 'super macrophages'.
" macrophages are immune cells responsible for cleaning up a variety of cell waste, including malformed proteins, excess fat particles, dysfunctional cytosomes, and so on.
Atherath atherosclerosis, macrophages try to recover damage by cleaning arteries, but they cannot overcome the inflammatory nature of plaques and the clean-up process is hampered," explains
Razani.
, these cells, which try to clean up the waste, are instead making the problem worse - dead cells, more lipids, and more plaques.
study, Razani and colleagues found that when seaweed sugar was injected into mice prone to atherosclerosis, plaques in the arteries of mice decreased.
The plaques at the root of the aorta in these mice were different in size, but on average, the plaques in the control group were 0.35 square millimeters, compared with 0.25 square millimeters in the mice in the experimental group, which meant a reduction of about 30 percent.
this difference is statistically important.
but when mice were given oral seaweed sugar or injected with other sugars with similar structures, they had no effect.
cross-section of the aorta in mice, we could see large patches.
red line is the aortic wall.
yellow area is where macrophages are cleaning up cell waste.
seaweed sugar is found in plants and insects and is a natural sugar that contains two glucose molecules that bind together.
FDA has approved it for human consumption and is often used as a pharmaceutical ingredient.
past studies have shown that seaweed sugar triggers cell autophagy.
but the mechanism that triggers cell autophagy is unclear.
study, Razani and colleagues found that seaweed sugar activates a molecule called TFEB.
the activated TFEB molecule enters the nucleocytes of macrophages and binds to DNA.
this binding activates specific genes and causes a chain of events that lead to additional cleaning mechanisms, with more cytosells acting as garbage cleaners and collectors.
Algae sugar not only enhances existing cleaning mechanisms, it also triggers new cellular mechanisms, leading to stronger autophagy," said Razani.
is this the only way seaweed sugar enhances autophagy through macrophages? We're not sure yet, we're still testing.
but it's a very important process.
researchers are working on a way to treat atherosclerosis because it is safe for humans and a good sweetener.
scientists are currently overcoming is how not to use injection methods.
that if you take it orally, seaweed sugar will lose its function, because an enzyme in the digestive tract breaks it down into glucose molecules.
team is looking for ways to stop this effect of enzymes, allowing seaweed sugar to maintain its structure and function by oral use, " said Razani, a researcher at the University of New South China.
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