{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]],"date-time":"2026-06-30T09:12:36Z","timestamp":1782810756372,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"18","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,5]],"date-time":"2023-09-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1693872000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Innovation Platform for the Development and Construction of Special Project of Qinghai Province","award":["2021-ZJ-T05"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021-ZJ-T05"]}]},{"name":"Innovation Platform for the Development and Construction of Special Project of Qinghai Province","award":["SM22B48"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SM22B48"]}]},{"name":"Young Doctor Research Fund of Yantai University","award":["2021-ZJ-T05"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021-ZJ-T05"]}]},{"name":"Young Doctor Research Fund of Yantai University","award":["SM22B48"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SM22B48"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Molecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Thymopentin (TP5) has exhibited strong antitumor and immunomodulatory effects in vivo. However, the polypeptide is rapidly degraded by protease and aminopeptidase within a minute at the N-terminal of TP5, resulting in severe limitations for further practical applications. In this study, the protective effects of water-soluble alginic acid (WSAA) on the N-terminal of TP5 were investigated by establishing an H22 tumor-bearing mice model and determining thymus, spleen, and liver indices, immune cells activities, TNF-\u03b1, IFN-\u03b3, IL-2, and IL-4 levels, and cell cycle distributions. The results demonstrated that WSAA+TP5 groups exhibited the obvious advantages of the individual treatments and showed superior antitumor effects on H22 tumor-bearing mice by effectively protecting the immune organs, activating CD4+ T cells and CD19+ B cells, and promoting immune-related cytokines secretions, finally resulting in the high apoptotic rates of H22 cells through arresting them in S phase. These data suggest that WSAA could effectively protect the N-terminal of TP5, thereby improving its antitumor and immunoregulatory activities, which indicates that WSAA has the potential to be applied in patients bearing cancer or immune deficiency diseases as a novel immunologic adjuvant.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules28186445","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,5]],"date-time":"2023-09-05T10:26:43Z","timestamp":1693909603000},"page":"6445","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["The Protective Effects of Water-Soluble Alginic Acid on the N-Terminal of Thymopentin"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"28","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0568-4048","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Haiyu","family":"Ji","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Mitochondria and Healthy Aging, College of Life Sciences, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuting","family":"Fan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Mitochondria and Healthy Aging, College of Life Sciences, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaoji","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Mitochondria and Healthy Aging, College of Life Sciences, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Youshun","family":"Gong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Mitochondria and Healthy Aging, College of Life Sciences, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Keyao","family":"Dai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7347-8561","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhenhua","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Mitochondria and Healthy Aging, College of Life Sciences, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bo","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Mitochondria and Healthy Aging, College of Life Sciences, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Juan","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Mitochondria and Healthy Aging, College of Life Sciences, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106","DOI":"10.1016\/j.progpolymsci.2011.06.003","article-title":"Alginate: Properties and biomedical applications","volume":"37","author":"Lee","year":"2012","journal-title":"Prog. 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