Fucoidan
Se-Kwon Kim in Marine Biochemistry, 2023
Fucoidan is a sulfated polysaccharide that can be found in brown seaweed and sea cucumber. The bioactivities of fucoidan, such as anticoagulants, antioxidants, immunomodulator, anti inflammatory, antiviral, anticancer, and a variety of other unique bioactivities, are beneficial to preventing GI ulcers and healing gastric ulcers by fucoidan reduces aspirin induced inflammatory cytokine production and stomach mucosal injury. Mucus production improves during the healing phase. Intracellular instigators like stomach fluids and oxidants and exogenous damaging chemicals like NSAIDs are protected from the ulcer crater. Fucoidan’s health activities as a natural food element obtained from the sea are directly linked to its chemical properties. Fucoidan properties depends on the type of macroalgae used, the conditions of extraction, and the chemical and physical treatment of this one of a kind product. Because of its various health benefits, fucoidan is currently commonly utilized in manufacturing functional foods.
Macroalgal Fucoidan for Biomedical Applications
Gokare A. Ravishankar, Ranga Rao Ambati in Handbook of Algal Technologies and Phytochemicals, 2019
Fucoidan is a sulfated polysaccharide and is mainly composed of a rich amount of fucose moieties with differently substituted other sugar units and it is usually found in brown seaweeds. However, the structure of fucoidan varies among seaweed species and geographic condition. For example, the sargassum species consists of sulfated fucogalacturonan. Recent research results suggest that fucoidan has excellent pharmaceutical properties and antitumor (Zhuang et al., 1995), anticancer (Kwak, 2014), immunomodulatory (Raghavendran et al., 2011), antioxidant (Wang et al., 2010), anti-inflammatory (Cumashi et al., 2007), suppression of fat (Kim et al., 2014), anti-HIV (Thuy et al., 2015) and anticoagulant (Düriget et al., 1997) activities. These biological activities are mainly related to the structure of fucoidan, its monosaccharides unit structure, sulfated condition and position of this group. Soft isolation procedure might be required to get biologically active fucoidan molecules (Ale and Meyer, 2013).
Bioactive Compounds in Marine Macro Algae and Their Role in Pharmacological Applications
Parimelazhagan Thangaraj in Phytomedicine, 2020
Fucoidan is the most important and dominant sulfated polysaccharide, which mainly is composed of fucose linked in (1, 3) and (1, 4) glycosidic linkage (Daniel et al. 2001). In the two brown algal families, such as Fucaceae and Laminariaceae, the cell walls are composed of 2%–10% dry weight of the fucoidans. Fucoidans are derived from numerous species of BA, such as Ascophyllum nodosum, Cladosiphon okamuranus, Fucus vesiculosis, and Undaria pinnatifida. Fucoidan has a higher bioactive potential, and pharmacological activities, such as anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-virus, anti-tumor, anti-coagulation, immunomodulatory, and anti-inflammatory have been performed (Smit 2004; Cumashi et al. 2007; Wijesinghe and Jeon 2012). Fucoidan will show potential in bone-tissue engineering during analyses for the biomedical field (Jeong et al. 2013; Lowe et al. 2016).
Fucoidan Ameliorates Hepatocellular Carcinoma Induced in Rats: Effect on miR143 and Inflammation
Published in Nutrition and Cancer, 2021
Yousra M. El-Far, Ahmed E. Khodir, Ziad A. Emarah, Mohamed A. Ebrahim, Mohammed M. H. Al-Gayyar
Fucoidan is the most abundant sulfated polysaccharide constituent of many species of brown algae, brown seaweed, and marine invertebrates as sea cucumber. Although, the underlying molecular mechanism are widely unexplored, it is reported to produce antitumor activity through different mechanisms including cycle arrest, apoptosis, and immune system activation (21,22). We found that fucoidan produced both antitumor and hepatic protective effects in HCC rats. It increased rats’ survival percent and reduced the serum level of AFP. Moreover, it reduced the serum levels of GPT and alkaline phosphatase associated with significant improvement of structure of hepatocytes as observed in hepatic sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The underlying mechanism for antitumor activity of fucoidan in HCC represented by enhancing cellular apoptosis and inhibition of cellular proliferation. Fucoidan reduced PI3K/Akt pathway in HCC cells leading to activation of p38 MAPK and inactivation of ERK signaling pathways and subsequently caused mitochondrial dysfunction and programed cell death (23).
Inhibitory effects of fucoidan on NMDA receptors and l -type Ca2+ channels regulating the Ca2+ responses in rat neurons
Published in Pharmaceutical Biology, 2019
Hong Wu, Shuibo Gao, Susumu Terakawa
Fucoidan is a group of sulphated fucose-containing polysaccharides obtained from brown algae. Fucoidan has multiple biological activities, including anticancer, immune and clotting modulation, anti-inflammation, etc. (Abudabbus et al. 2017; Li et al. 2017; Takahashi et al. 2018). Additionally, the neuroprotective effects of fucoidan had been confirmed both in vivo and in vitro. Fucoidan could protect rat cholinergic basal forebrain neurons against β-amyloid-induced death in vitro (Jhamandas et al. 2005). Luo et al. (2009) demonstrated that fucoidan significantly reduced dopaminergic neuron death induced by 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP(+)) through inhibiting lipid peroxidation and reduction of antioxidant enzyme activity. Moreover, researchers also showed that fucoidan effectively improved the behavioural deficits of animal models with dopaminergic neuronal damage (Luo et al. 2009; Cui et al. 2012; Zhang et al. 2014). Importantly, under conditions of disease and injury, excessive buildup of intracellular Ca2+ could induce neuronal damage and death involving central nervous system (CNS) disorders (Fujikawa 2015). However, the effects of fucoidan on influx of Ca2+ ions in neurons remain unclear.
Preparation and optimization of silibinin-loaded chitosan–fucoidan hydrogel: an in vivo evaluation of skin protection against UVB
Published in Pharmaceutical Development and Technology, 2021
Masood Ali Karami, Behzad Sharif Makhmalzadeh, Mahsa Pooranian, Anahita Rezai
Fucoidan, a sulfated polysaccharide (Figure 1) extracted from brown algae, was first isolated by Kylin almost a century ago and was found to contain a significant amount of L-fucose and sulfate ester groups. Recently, fucoidan has been studied extensively due to potential anti-tumor, anti-viral, anti-complement, and anti-inflammatory activities (Bhattarai et al. 2010). Fucoidan is a sulfated polysaccharide, and its photo-protective effects against UVB have been investigated. Fucoidan inhibits UVB-induced MMP-1 expression in human skin by inhibiting the ERK pathways (Moon et al. 2008). Therefore, the novelty of this study is that a marine natural-based vehicle with sun-protective properties is prepared for the delivery of SB as a natural UV-protective agent. In this study, a hydrogel composed of chitosan and fucoidan was used as a silibinin topical delivery system to protect the skin against UVB.
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