Extraction of polysaccharides from Maca enhances the treatment effect of 5-FU by regulating CD4(+)T cells

In our previous studies, we used a graded alcohol precipitation method to extract four maca polysaccharide components (MCP1, MCP2, MCP3, and MCP4) from maca with various molecular weights. Compared to other three components, MCP2 had stronger immunoregulatory abilities on CD4(+)T cells. To avoid the immunosuppressive effect of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), maca polysaccharides in combination with 5-FU treatment were investigated in this study. The results show that 500 mg/kg and 1000 mg/kg MCP2 could significantly delay the growth of tumor and enhance the anti-tumor effect of 5-FU in vivo. Furthermore, MCP2 can partly recover the proliferation of CD4(+)T cells after being suppressed by 5-FU in vitro. Additionally, in order to explore the mechanism in which MCP2 acts on CD4(+)T cells, the MCP2 is marked with FITC fluorescence and synthesis MCP2-Tyr-FITC for the first time. Confocal microscope results show that MCP2-Tyr-FITC can directly bind to the surface of CD4(+)T cells. Together, our work demonstrates that maca polysaccharides could enhance the anti-tumor effect when combined with 5-FU by regulating CD4(+)T cells, suggesting a novel potential immunomodulator in tumor therapy.