Pulsed electric field-treated malvacin-3-O-galactoside and whey protein complexes alleviate silica-induced pulmonary fibrosis by promoting cellular mitochondrial autophagy and inhibiting cellular pyroptosis

Malvacin-3- O -galactoside (M3G) is the most abundant anthocyanins component in blueberries and has high biological activity. We investigated the effect of a pulsed electric field (PEF) on the interaction between whey protein (WP) and M3G. Stability experiments showed that PEF significantly improved stability of the anthocyanin-whey protein complex (M3G-WP), particularly at 15 kV/cm for 30 min. PEF-treated M3G-WP (PEF-M3G-WP) was used as a model of silica-induced lung fibrosis to investigate its anti-inflammatory activity and molecular mechanisms. Both in vivo and in vitro experiments demonstrated that PEF-M3G-WP alleviated inflammation in macrophages. It upregulated the expression of PINK1 and Parkin and downregulated the expression of NLRP3, CASP1, and GSDMD NT. Furthermore, qPCR experiments showed that PEF-M3G-WP inhibited the release of inflammatory factors IL1b and IL18 by upregulating Atg5 and downregulating P62 in alveolar macrophage cell lines (MH-S). In summary, PEF-treated M3G-WP may be a potential method for alleviating pulmonary fibrosis.