Beneficial and harmful properties of Lectins

Abstract

In food, lectins have been found beneficial for the consumers they were identified in cereals and their germs and seeds, fruits and vegetables and their seeds too, nuts, cocoa, coffee, edible mushrooms, algae, invertebrate including seafood, lectins also exhibited therapeutic responses like antimicrobial and antiparasitic actions, antitumor cells proliferation, immuno-stimulation, inhibition of some viruses replication, including HIV. If it is harmful lectins in foods, that induce disruption of gut mucosa, leptin resistance, an increase of pancreas, thymus, liver, hormonal imbalance, it could be in cooked food, are due to the fact that many of the lectins are resistant to pH and proteases attack during gastrointestinal passage. Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) may contribute to immunoglobulin-mediated complement activation in both ischemia-reperfusion and rejection. The interaction of MBL with IgM may be of importance to explain some of the conflicting results on beneficial and harmful effects of the lectin pathway. In this present review is focused on the beneficial and harmful properties of Lectins.