Bioactive carbohydrate polymers: Between myth and reality

Polysaccharides are complex macromolecules long regarded as energetic storage resources or as components of plant and fungal cell walls. They have also been described as plant mucilages or microbial exopolysaccharides. The development of glycosciences has led to a partial and difficult deciphering of their other biological functions in living organisms. The objectives of glycobiochemistry and glycobiology are currently to correlate some structural features of polysaccharides with some biological responses in the producing organisms or in another one. In this context, the literature focusing on bioactive polysaccharides has increased exponentially during the last two decades, being sometimes very optimistic for some new applications of bioactive polysaccharides, notably in the medical field. Therefore, this review aims to examine bioactive polysaccharide, taking a critical look of the different biological activities reported by authors and the reality of the market. It focuses also on the chemical, biochemical, enzymatic, and physical modifications of these biopolymers to optimize their potential as bioactive agents.

Description

Funding: This research was funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, project number FZWM-2021-0016, and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through the Strategic Project UID/MAR/04292/2020.

Keywords

Polysaccharide Oligosaccharide Bioactive agent Macromolecules

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/7477

Citation

Drira, M.; Hentati, F.; Babich, O.; Sukhikh, S.; Larina, V.; Sharifian, S.; Homai, A.; Fendri, I.; Lemos, M.F.L.; Félix, C.; et al. Bioactive Carbohydrate Polymers—Between Myth and Reality. Molecules 2021, 26, 7068. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules 26237068

Publisher

MDPI

DOI

10.3390/molecules26237068

Collections

MARE - Artigos com peer review

CC License

cclicense-by

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