Abstract
Long-term exposure to air pollution has been associated with the development of some inflammatory processes related to skin. The goal of modern medicine is the development of new products with antiflammatory action deriving from natural sources to improve environmental and economic sustainability. In this study, two different humic acids (HA) were isolated from from lignite (HA-LIG) and composted artichoke wastes (HA-CYN) and characterized by infrared spectrometry, NMR spectroscopy, thermochemolysis-GC/MS, and high-performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC), while their antiflammatory activity was evaluated on HaCaT cells. Spectroscopic results showing the predominance of apolar aliphatic and aromatic components in HA-LIG, whereas HA-CYN revealed a presence of polysaccharides and polyphenolic lignin residues. The HA application on human keratinocyte pre-treated with Urban Dust revealed a general increase of viability suggesting a protective effect of humic matter due to the content of aromatic, phenolic and lignin components. Conversely, the gene expression of IL-6 and IL-1β cytokines indicated a significant decrease after application of HA-LIG, thus exhibiting a greater antiflammatory power than HA-CYN. The specific combination of HA protective hydrophobic components, viable conformational arrangements, and content of bioactive molecules, suggests an innovative applicability of humic matter in dermatology as skin protectors from environmental irritants and as antiflammatory agents.
Highlights
Long-term exposure to air pollution has been associated with the development of some inflammatory processes related to skin
The elemental composition of humic acids revealed a significant larger C content (56%) in the geochemically derived humic acids from lignite (HA-LIG), while the C/N ratio highlighted the preferential incorporation of nitrogen-containing compounds (e.g.: peptides) in HA-CYN (Table 1)
While previous studies pointed out that the antimicrobial activities promoted by humic and Humic‐like substances (HULIS) against plants pathogens depended on their specific molecular composition[18,19,44,45], we show for the first time that HA isolated from composted agricultural biomasses exert protection properties on human cells and this depends on the molecular composition of the tested humic acid
Summary
Long-term exposure to air pollution has been associated with the development of some inflammatory processes related to skin. An increasing attention is devoted to search for innovative products to reduce and mitigate the consequences of inflammatory processes In this context, natural organic derivates, such as humic acids (HA), found several applications in different pharmaceutical fields like medicine and veterinary science due to the acknowledged antiviral, antimicrobial, profibrinolytic, antiflammatory and estrogenic a ctivities[17,18]. Natural organic derivates, such as humic acids (HA), found several applications in different pharmaceutical fields like medicine and veterinary science due to the acknowledged antiviral, antimicrobial, profibrinolytic, antiflammatory and estrogenic a ctivities[17,18] These bioactive molecules can be isolated from recycled biomasses such as green compost from agricultural wastes, widening the value of recycled biomasses within the circular economy framework[18,19]. Some scientific evidences have shown a relation between application of humic substances and release of cytokines through the activation of a superoxide dismutase mechanism or the migration and adhesion of cells of the damaged sites, the inherent structure–activity relationship have not been clearly elucidated[22]
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