Drug potential of heparan sulfate/heparin:research advances / 国际药学研究杂志

ABSTRACT

Heparan sulfate (HS) and heparin (HP) are highly sulfated and heterogeneous polysaccharides composed of repeating disaccharide units. HS takes part in regulation of many related biological functions through its interaction with proteins and plays an important role in them. HS is also shown to have promising perspectives as a potential antivirus agent. As a special structure type of HS,HP is also widely used as the clinical anticoagulant drug and demonstrated to be a promising candidate for anticancer and anti-inflammatory drugs. Progress of the research in the areas of anticoagulant， anticancer， anti-inflammatory and antivirus activity of HS/HP and their chemoenzymatic synthesis is summarized in this review.