Protective Effect of Apple Polyphenols against Stress-Provoked Influenza Viral Infection in Restraint Mice

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of apple polyphenol extract (APE) against influenza virus in mice loaded with restraint stress. The high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint of APE was recorded, and the percentage composition of polyphenols was determined as 81.7%. Our results showed that restraint stress significantly promoted the mortality and duration of complications of mice infected with the H1N1 virus. However, oral administration of APE (100 and 200 mg/kg) improved the survival rates and prolonged living time of stressed mice infected with influenza virus in a dose-dependent manner. APE was further found to significantly improve the number of immunocytes, ratio of CD4 helper cells, secretion of IL-2, and capabilities of natural killer (NK) cytotoxicity (LU10/spleen) in spleens of restraint-stressed mice. In addition, APE also significantly decreased the level of lipid peroxidation and increased oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) in splenocytes. These results indicated that the protective effects of APE on mice infected with influenza virus were related to the alleviation of stress-induced impairment of immune functions and its antioxidant property might contribute to the immune recovery.