Microalgal Derivatives as Potential Nutraceutical and Food Supplements for Human Health: A Focus on Cancer Prevention and Interception

Abstract

Epidemiological studies are providing strong evidence on beneficial health effects from dietary measures, leading scientists to actively investigate which foods and which specific agents in the diet can prevent diseases. Public health officers and medical experts should collaborate toward the design of disease prevention diets for nutritional intervention. Functional foods are emerging as an instrument for dietary intervention in disease prevention. Functional food products are technologically developed ingredients with specific health benefits. Among promising sources of functional foods and chemopreventive diets of interest, microalgae are gaining worldwide attention, based on their richness in high-value products, including carotenoids, proteins, vitamins, essential amino acids, omega-rich oils and, in general, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds. Beneficial effects of microalgae on human health and/or wellness could in the future be useful in preventing or delaying the onset of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. During the past decades, microalgal biomass was predominately used in the health food market, with more than 75% of the annual microalgal biomass production being employed for the manufacture of powders, tablets, capsules or pastilles. In this review, we report and discuss the present and future role of microalgae as marine sources of functional foods/beverages for human wellbeing, focusing on perspectives in chemoprevention. We dissected this topic by analyzing the different classes of microalgal compounds with health outputs (based on their potential chemoprevention activities), the biodiversity of microalgal species and how to improve their cultivation, exploring the perspective of sustainable food from the sea.

Keywords: cancer; chemoprevention; functional food; marine bioactive compounds; microalgae; nutraceutical.

Figure 1

Diversity of bioactive compound families with potential chemopreventive effects present in microalgae as a candidate for food supplements. The hydrophilic and lipophilic compounds’ groups are distinct. In order to provide a wide range of protective effects, the synergy between groups of molecules is required. This can be obtained with a two-step process (mixing the two hydro- and lipophilic extracts [37,38] or in one step process [39]. The combinations proposed will result in enhanced preventive activities action by blocking oxygen (ROS)/nitrogen (NOS) reactive species generation, inflammation, aberrant cell proliferation (such as cancers) and by potentiating the activities of the immune system (immunostimulatory functions). DMS: dimethylsulfide, ROS: oxygen reactive species; NOS: nitrogen reactive species; CDKs: cyclin-dependent-kinases.