Pleiotropic Modulation of Chitooligosaccharides on Inflammatory Signaling in LPS-Induced Macrophages

Chitooligosaccharide (COS) is a green and non-toxic cationic carbohydrate that has attracted wide attention in recent years due to its anti-inflammatory activity. However, the anti-inflammatory mechanism of COS remains unclear. In this study, RNA-seq was used to investigate the integrated response of COS to LPS-induced damage in macrophages. The results showed that the experimental group with COS had 2570 genes with significant differences compared to the model group, and that these genes were more enriched in inflammatory and immune pathways. The KEGG results showed that COS induces the pleiotropic modulation of classical inflammatory pathways, such as the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, NF-κB, MAPK, etc. Based on the RNA-seq data and the RT-qPCR, as well as the WB validation, COS can significantly upregulate the expression of membrane receptors, such as Tlr4, Tlr5, and MR, and significantly inhibits the phosphorylation of several important proteins, such as IκB and JNK. Overall, this study offers deep insights into the anti-inflammatory mechanism and lays the foundation for the early application of COS as an anti-inflammatory drug.