ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Pharmacology of Anti-Cancer Drugs
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1593407
A galactoarabinan contained glycoprotein isolated from the fruits of Lycium barbarum reverses the tumor-associated macrophage phenotype
Provisionally accepted
- Natural Products Discovery Institute, Doylestown, United States
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Abstract Lycium barbarum fruits possess a well-established history of use in traditional Chinese medicine due to their potent immunomodulatory properties, extending to cancer immunity. In this study, a purified galactoarabinan-containing glycoprotein, designated LBNP-1, with an apparent molecular weight of 56.2 kDa, was isolated from the aqueous extract of L. barbarum fruits. Our findings revealed that LBNP-1 possesses a branched arabinan structure as its saccharide moiety. Bioactivity assays demonstrated that LBNP-1 polarized M2 macrophages towards the M1 phenotype. Furthermore, the LBNP-1-induced macrophage phenotypic shift was inhibited by a TLR4 antagonist. Western blot analysis indicated that LBNP-1 activated the NF-κB signaling pathway, thereby promoting polarization of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) towards the M1 phenotype. Moreover, conditioned medium derived from RAW264.7 cells pretreated with LBNP-1 exhibited anticancer effects against colorectal cancer (CRC) cells. Our research highlights the antitumor effect of LBNP-1 against CRC, mediated by reversing the TAM phenotype. LBNP-1 may represent a potential immunomodulator for the treatment of malignancies.
Keywords: Lyciumbarbarum, polysaccharide, Tumor-associatedmacrophage, Immunomodulatory activity, colorectal cancer
Received: 14 Mar 2025; Accepted: 14 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bo, Lu, Lv, Dong and Bai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wang Bo, wangking1126@163.com
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