Table 1.

Protective effects of Spirulina against oxidative stress and neuroinflammation.

Parameter	Test species	Main findings	Reference
Protein malnutrition induced oxidative stress and neuroinflammation
Oxidative stress	Rats	Increased CAT and decreased SOD activity in marasmic-kwashiorkor rats	Akinola et al., 2010
	Human	Increased lipid peroxidation product (MDA) and decreased anti-oxidant level (GSH, Zn-SOD)	Khare et al., 2014
	Human	Reduced blood levels of CAT, SOD, GSH, vitamin C and increased MDA concentration	Aly et al., 2014
	Rats	Increased MDA level, reduced SOD enzyme activity and metabolic dysfunction	Vega et al., 2016
	Human	Increased serum MDA levels	Verma et al., 2017
Neuroinflammation	Mice	Decreased serum protein levels and reduced superoxide anion production	Redmond et al., 1991
	Human	Reduced anti-oxidant level (glutathione and vitamin E) in kwashiorkor patients and increased concentration of IL-6 and soluble receptor of TNF-α	Sauerwein et al., 1997
	Rats	High circulating concentration of TNF-α, increased expression of TNF-α mRNA in liver, reduced phagocytic activity of neutrophils and increased superoxide anion production	Silva et al., 2010
	Rats	Increased serum TNF-α and urinary 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine level	Yamada et al., 2016
	Human	Increased serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and reduced serum levels of Zn, Ca, and Mg	El-Maksoud et al., 2017
Anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of Spirulina
Anti-oxidant activity	Human	Reduced plasma level of MDA and increased SOD activity	Lu et al., 2006
	Rat	Increased level of antioxidants (GSH, SOD and CAT)	Jeyaprakash and Chinnaswamy, 2007
	Mice	Decreased lipid peroxidation (LPO) level and antioxidants concentration (SOD and CAT) were restored to near normal level	Sharma et al., 2007
	Mice	Reduced LPO level in hippocampus, striatum and cortex, increased CAT and glutathione peroxidase activity	Hwang et al., 2011
	Rat	Reduced lipid peroxidation and decreased percentage of DNA fragmentation	Hassan et al., 2012
Anti-inflammatory activity	Human	Reduced plasma MDA level, decreased LDL-cholesterol and IL-6 expression	Lee et al., 2008
	Mice	Inhibited humoral and cell mediated immune response and decreased TNF-α production	Rasool and Sabina, 2009
	Human	Increased indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) level and ameliorated senescence	Selmi et al., 2011
	Rat	Reduced expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6	Abdel-Daim et al., 2015
	Human	Increased CD4 cell count and significant reduction in viral load	Ngo-Matip et al., 2015