Table 1.

Marine microalgae synthesizing immunomodulatory compounds or possessing immunomodulatory properties. IL is for interleukin, PBMC is for human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, NA is for not available, w/v is for weight/volume.

Microalgae	Extract/Fraction/Compound	Active Concentration	Mechanism/ Organism and Target Cells (or Model)	Reference
Alexandrium tamarense	Total Extract/Fractions	NA	Activation of IL-6/Human PBMC	[49]
Chaetoceros calcitrans	Fractions	NA	Activation of IL-6/Human PBMC	[49]
Chaetoceros socialis	Total extract	NA	Activation of IL-6/Human PBMC	[49]
Chlorella stigmatophora	Crude polysaccharide extracts	5 or 10 mg/kg	Activation of phagocytic activity - SRBC/Mouse	[50]
Chlorella vulgaris	Diet supplementation/ commercially available pills	5 g/day	Improve of NK activity and serum level of INF-γ, IL-1β and IL-12/Human trials	[55]
Dunaliella salina	Diet supplementation of commercially available spray-dried preparations	369, and 922.5 mg/kg	MiceNK and Macrophage activation/In vivo mice model	[56] [49]
Dunaliella salina	Fractions	NA	Activation of IL-6/Human PBMC	[49]
Euglena gracilis	β-Glucans	150 μg/mL	Activation of NK cells and improve in inflammatory mediator/Human PBMC	[51,52]
Gyrodinium impudicum	Sulfated exopolysaccharides	0.1–10 μg/mL	Macrophage activation/Murine	[53,59]
Skeletonema costatum	Total Extract/Fractions	NA	Activation of IL-6/Human PBMC	[49]
Skeletonema dohrnii	Total Extract/Fractions	NA	Activation of IL-6/Human PBMC	[49]
Skeletonema marinoi	Total Extract	NA	Activation of IL-6/Human PBMC	[49]
Spirulina sp.	Food supplement of condensed water-soluble extract of commercially available spray dried Spirulina	NA	Augmentation of interferon production and NK cytotoxicity /Human trials	[60,61]
Tetraselmis chuii	Orally administration of lyophilized microalgae	50 or 100 g/Kg	Increase in hemolytic complement activity, phagocytic capacity and expression levels of β-defensin, major histocompatibility complex IIα and colony-stimulating factor receptor-1/Gilthead sea bream	[57]
Thalassiosira weissflogii	Fractions		Activation of IL-6/Human PBMC	[49]
Thraustochytriidae sp.	Exopolysaccharides	10−3 to 10−9 w/v	B-cells proliferation/Human	[54]
Tribonema sp.	Sulfated polysaccharides	12.5–200 μg/mL	Macrophage proliferation and improved expression of cytokines/Mouse	[2]