3.3 - Maresins and bacterial infections
A study conducted by Jiang et al. (2022) revealed that daily supplementation of Lactobacillus casei (L. casei ) during the intensive phase of tuberculosis led to an upregulation of various bioactive lipids, including Maresin 1. Plasma levels of these lipids showed a strong correlation with the downregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Additionally, supplementation with enriched marine oil increased the levels of different lipids, particularly MaRn-3 DPA, in the plasma of healthy volunteers. Notably, individuals receiving the supplementation exhibited higher phagocytic capacity of S. aureusby neutrophils compared to the placebo group, indicating the effectiveness of specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs) in modulating peripheral blood cells (Souza et al., 2020). In vitrostudies have demonstrated that maresin-1 production by M2 macrophages is stimulated during E. coli infection. Moreover, maresin-1 has been shown to limit the infection of human macrophages by M. tuberculosis , thereby reducing inflammation (Werz et al., 2018; Ruiz et al., 2019). In vivo experiments involving coinfection with influenza A virus (IAV) and Streptococcus pneumoniae demonstrated that administration of MCTR1 plus MCTR3 or MCTR3 alone resulted in reduced lung inflammation and bacterial load at different time points post-infection (Tavares et al., 2022b). These findings, like those observed with lipoxin A4 (LXA4), indicate a potential beneficial role for maresins in the treatment of bacterial infections. However, further research is needed to fully understand and explore their therapeutic potential in this context. Additional studies are necessary to investigate the mechanisms of action, optimal dosing, and potential synergistic effects of maresins with other treatments.