Biological activities and pharmaceutical applications of polysaccharide from natural resources: A review. Yu Yue,Shen Mingyue,Song Qianqian,Xie Jianhua Carbohydrate polymers Pharmacotherapy using natural substances can be currently regarded as a very promising future alternative to conventional therapy. As biological macromolecules, polysaccharide together with protein and polynucleotide, are extremely important biomacromoleules which play important roles in the growth and development of living organism. Polysaccharide is important component of higher plants, membrane of the animal cell and the cell wall of microbes. It is also closely related to the physiological functions. Recently, increasing attention has been paid on polysaccharides as an important class of bioactive natural products. Numerous researches have demonstrated the bioactivities of natural polysaccharides, which lead to the application of polysaccharides in the treatment of disease. In this paper, the various aspects of the investigation results of the bioactivities of polysaccharides were summarized, including its diversity pharmacological applications, such as immunoregulatory, anti-tumor, anti-virus, antioxidation, and hypoglycemic activity, and their application of polysaccharides in the treatment of disease are also discussed. We hope this review can offer some theoretical basis and inspiration for the mechanism study of the bioactivity of polysaccharides. 10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.12.009

Mushrooms and immunity. Motta Francesca,Gershwin M Eric,Selmi Carlo Journal of autoimmunity In the wide field of nutraceuticals, the effects of mushrooms on immunity, cancer and including autoimmunity have been proposed for centuries but in recent years a growing interest has led scientists to elucidate which specific compounds have bioactive properties and through which mechanisms. Glucans and specific proteins are responsible for most of the biological effects of mushrooms, particularly in terms of immunomodulatory and anti-tumor results. Proteins with bioactive effects include lectins, fungal immunomodulatory proteins (FIPs), ribosome inactivating proteins (RIPs), ribonucleases, laccases, among others. At the present status of knowledge, numerous studies have been performed on cell lines and murine models while only a few clinical trials have been conducted. As in most cases of dietary components, the multitude of variables implicated in the final effect and an inadequate standardization are expected to affect the observed differences, thus making the available evidence insufficient to justify the treatment of human diseases with mushrooms extracts. We will herein provide a comprehensive review and critically discussion the biochemical changes induced by different mushroom compounds as observed in in vitro studies, particularly on macrophages, dendritic cells, T cells, and NK cells, compared to in vivo and human studies. Additional effects are represented by lipids which constitute a minor part of mushrooms but may have a role in reducing serum cholesterol levels or phenols acting as antioxidant and reducing agents. Human studies provide a minority of available data, as well illustrated by a placebo-controlled study of athletes treated with β-glucan from Pleurotus ostreatus. Variables influencing study outcomes include different mushrooms strains, growing conditions, developmental stage, part of mushroom used, extraction method, and storage conditions. We foresee that future rigorous research will be needed to determine the potential of mushroom compounds for human health to reproduce the effects of some compounds such as lentinan which a metaanalysis demonstrated to increase the efficacy of chemotherapy in the treatment of lung cancer and in the improvement of the patients quality of life. 10.1016/j.jaut.2020.102576

Natural polysaccharides with different conformations: extraction, structure and anti-tumor activity. Lyu Fengzhi,Xu Xiaojuan,Zhang Lina Journal of materials chemistry. B Natural polysaccharides as sustainable polymers are rich sources with good biological safety and various biological functions, which are important research topics in the fields of food and medicine. However, their widespread medical application is hindered due to the technical difficulties in the extraction/purification and chain structure characterization of polysaccharides, as well as due to the lack of thorough understanding of the macromolecular chain conformation and the mechanism of bioaction for these polysaccharides. To provide a relatively comprehensive reference for relevant researchers, we mainly introduce several natural polysaccharides with different chain conformations including random coil, hyperbranched sphere, and triple helix in solution, as well as summarize their extraction and purification processes, characterization of chemical structure and chain conformation, anti-tumor activities and potential mechanisms. 10.1039/d0tb01713b