Research progress on intestinal microecology regulating mechanism and biological activities of polysaccharides / 中国中药杂志

Intestinal microecology is an important defense system in the human body. The intestinal flora is the core micro-ecosystem in the human intestine. It has a symbiotic relationship with the overall functions of the body. It has strong metabolic activity to maintain the normal functioning of the body and resist the invasion of various viral antigens in the body. Playing a protective function,the imbalanced intestinal microecology can cause various diseases. Polysaccharides can be extracted from a wide range of sources and have low toxicity and side effects. They have attracted wide attention because of their anti-tumor, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and other biological activities. Studies have demonstrated that polysaccharides can regulate intestinal microecological disorders. According to the studies in recent years, this review summarizes that polysaccharides mainly modulate intestinal microecological disorders through regulating the composition of intestinal flora, improving the metabolism of the flora, and repairing the intestinal tract barrier. On the basis of these mechanisms of action, this paper elaborates the anti-tumor, immunomodulatory, and anti-inflammatory activities of polysaccharides. This paper can provide reference for the future research on the intestinal microecology-regulating mechanism and biological activities of polysaccharides.

Characterization and activity effect on ADH of polysaccharides from Mori Fructus / 中国中药杂志

Mori Fructus polysaccharides (MFPs) have been used as a source of therapeutic agents. The most promising activities of these biopolymers are their immunomodulation and anti-cancer effects. It was reported that polysaccharides were a potential drug against liver injury, but the hepatoprotective effect of MFPs was ambiguous. In this study, the fractionation of crude polysaccharides on DEAE-Cellulose 52 gave four fractions (MFP-1, MFP-2, MFP-2 and MFP-4). The results showed that the contents of carbohydrates were 75.3%, 83.7%, 79.1%, 74.3%, and the molecular weight of them were 112.2, 128.8, 199.5, 181.9 kDa. Monosaccharide component analysis indicated that MFP-1 was composed of galactose, glucose, arabinose, rhamnose and mannose with the molarity rate of 26.8∶20.4∶8.74∶5∶1; MFP-2 contained arabinose, galactose, rhamnose, glucose and galacturonic acid with the molarity rate of 34.2∶38.2∶8∶17.5∶15.1; MFP-3 was composed of galacturonic acid, galactose, glucose, rhamnose and arabinose with the molarity rate of 28.3∶22.6∶20.9∶18.6∶15.1; MFP-4 contained glucose, galactose, rhamnose, galacturonic acid, arabinose and glucuronic acid with the molarity rate of 47.4∶34.9∶36.1∶33.1∶19.9∶4.1. IR analysis's results indicated that MFP-3 and MFP-4 may be polysaccharides containing β-glycosides. The alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity text showed that, all these four MFPs were found have a positive effect on the activity of ADH, with order: bifendate>MFP-3>MFP-1>MFP-2>tioprnin>MFP-4, and the MFP-3 had the highest activity and demonstrated outstanding hepatic protecting activity.

Advance in study on hepatoprotective effects and its mechanism of polysaccharides / 中国中药杂志

Liver damage is the pathologic status in the liver system, which can lead to cirrhosis, fibrosis and cancer of the liver. So to search for effective drugs on prevention and treatment of anti-hepatic lesion have already attracted broad concern in the world. Polysaccharides widely exist in plants, microorganisms and animals, and have high efficiency but low toxicity properties. Therefore, polysaccharides had been the hotspot in the research field of liver-protecting medicines, and had undergone great progresses. In this study, the hepatoprotective effects and its mechanism of polysaccharides were summarized and reviewed, and the market prospects of development and application were prospected. The research result indicated that polysaccharides derived from plants, microorganisms, animals which had significant effects on liver protection. Results also showed that polysaccharides showed the protective effect on chemical liver injury by anti-oxidation, alleviating calcium overload, adjusting the function of mitochondria, and the protective effect on immune liver injury by regulating cytokine secretion, blocking the complement system activity, inhibiting inflammatory mediator expression, suppressing hepatocyte apoptosis. Polysaccharides had rich resource, diverse bio-effects, abundance approaches and multitarget. Therefore, there is huge potential for developing polysaccharides as novel hepatoprotective medicine candidates.