Carbohydrate supplementation
Jay R Hoffman in Dietary Supplementation in Sport and Exercise, 2019
Oligosaccharides are the next step up in size and are comprised of three to nine saccharide units. Common nomenclature schemas exist by denoting the number of saccharide units present (tri-, tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta-, octa-, nona-). When a carbohydrate contains ten or greater saccharide units it is designated as a polysaccharide. These polysaccharides can be several thousand units in length and often have complex branching patterns. There are three primary forms of polysaccharides that are the most important to humans: starch, cellulose (fibre) and glycogen. Starch is what comprises the gross majority of the crops harvested for human diets and as such provides a large portion of the daily caloric intake (45). Cellulose is a non-starch polysaccharide and is the primary structural component of cereal grain cell walls (48). It is important to note that humans lack the enzyme cellulase and, as a result, are unable to obtain a nutritive value from cellulose (48). Glycogen, the most pertinent polysaccharide for this chapter, is a highly branched structure stored in muscle and liver for energy during fasting or exercise.
Cell Structure and Functions
Malgorzata Lekka in Cellular Analysis by Atomic Force Microscopy, 2017
Glycolipids form the second group of lipids. They have covalently bound mono- or polysaccharides in the hydrophilic region (through glycosidic bonds). The most common saccharides molecules are galactose, glucose or lactose [1, 2]. Glycolipids can be found in lipid membranes of various organs like brain, nerve system, spleen, kidney, lung, liver, and erythrocytes. Analogously as phospholipids, glycolipids have amphipathic character (Fig. 2.7a). There are several sub-families of glycolipids such as glycosphingolipids, commonly found in nerve tissue, made up of ceramides connected to a carbohydrate moiety. Galactocerebroside (Fig. 2.7b) is a type of glycolipid that is commonly found in the myelin sheath around the nerves of vertebrates.
Gastrointestinal Disease
Praveen S. Goday, Cassandra L. S. Walia in Pediatric Nutrition for Dietitians, 2022
Lactose is a disaccharide composed of galactose and glucose, and is the main carbohydrate in milk. Lactose intolerance refers to the inability to digest lactose due to inadequate activity of the lactase enzyme, the most common form of disaccharide deficiency. Primary lactase deficiency is a common condition in which lactase activity falls after weaning and can happen at any point in childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, although it is rare under age 6 years of age. Primary lactose intolerance is highly prevalent in African-American, Native-American, and Asian populations and less common in Northern-European, certain African, and Indian populations. Secondary lactase deficiency is usually due to mucosal injury associated with disease, such as celiac disease or Crohn’s disease.
Isolation, characterisation and complement fixation activity of acidic polysaccharides from Argemone mexicana used as antimalarials in Mali
Published in Pharmaceutical Biology, 2022
Adama Dénou, Adiaratou Togola, Kari Tvete Inngjerdingen, Nastaran Moussavi, Frode Rise, Yuan Feng Zou, Dalen G. Dafam, Elijah I. Nep, Abubakar Ahmed, Taiwo E. Alemika, Drissa Diallo, Rokia Sanogo, Berit Smestad Paulsen
Currently, bioactive phytocompounds have received great attention because of their vital health-related activities, such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticoagulant and antidiabetic activities, UV protection, antiviral and hypoglycaemic activities, etc. (Ullah et al. 2019). Among these components, carbohydrates known as saccharides are molecules consisting of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. They can also be sulphated and contain amino sugars. Carbohydrates such as monosaccharides, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides represent the most abundant biomolecules and essential components of many natural products and have attracted the attention of researchers because of their numerous human health benefits (Ruocco et al. 2016). Malian antimalarial plants contain polysaccharides (Dénou et al. 2019). From the outcomes of the polysaccharide screening on antimalarial plants used in Mali, Argemone mexicana was selected for deep investigations of its bioactive polysaccharides.
Carbohydrates based stimulus responsive nanocarriers for cancer-targeted chemotherapy: a review of current practices
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 2022
Cheng-Wu Zhang, Jun-Gang Zhang, Xue Yang, Wen-Lin Du, Zi-Lin Yu, Zhen-Ye Lv, Xiao-Zhou Mou
Carbohydrates (or saccharides) are one of the four primary groups of macromolecules, along with lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Carbohydrates provide unparalleled prospects for nanomedicine applications due to their unique mix of several benefits: (ii) biodegradable/biocompatible (ii) commercially accessible (iv) protein repellent (v) strong water solubility (vii) no agglomeration. Unlike proteins and nucleic acids, the connecting sites between sugar units are not fixed when oligo/polysaccharides are shaped by elongating chains and branch formation. Regioisomers may be produced due to lengthening the sugar sequence at various hydroxy groups, which results in a significant increase in coding capacity. Twenty amino acids yield 6.4 × 107 hexapeptide isomers, but an oligosaccharide with the same number of hexose repeating units yields 1.44 × 1015 isomers [10]. Additionally, the bulk of carbohydrates are present on the outer membranes of cells, in blood and extracellular fluid [11], providing an optimal biological environment for the intravenous administration of nanomedicines.
Microbially-derived cocktail of carbohydrases as an anti-biofouling agents: a ‘green approach’
Published in Biofouling, 2022
Harmanpreet Kaur, Arashdeep Kaur, Sanjeev Kumar Soni, Praveen Rishi
Exopolysaccharides constitute the most significant component, about 95% of the EPS matrix, as shown in Fig. 2 and, therefore, widely studied (Sutherland 2001). To date, the chemical composition of exopolysaccharides has not been wholly unraveled. The exopolysaccharides in the biofilm matrix differ in their chemical composition and properties as some are neutral, while others have been reported to be either polyanionic or polycationic (Limoli et al. 2015). They can interact and associate with other biopolymers found within the EPS matrix; such interactions, environmental factors, and multispecies biofilms comprising various bacterial or fungal species influence the properties of exopolysaccharides, whereby a range of polysaccharides are generated with unique architectures (Jenkinson and Lamont 1997). They are crucial for biofilm formation, cell aggregation, provide mechanical stability, and confer exceptional survival benefits to the microorganisms; for example, they serve as carbon and energy sources, especially during times of nutrition deficiency (Lembre et al. 2012; Heredia-Ponce et al. 2021). The biofilm polysaccharides are composed of homo and heteropolysaccharides, mainly glucose, mannose, galactose, fructose, mannuronic acid, and glucuronic acid. Furthermore, different bonds between the saccharides give rise to a multitude of different polysaccharides, including cellulose, dextrans, levan, mannans, and alginate (Limoli et al. 2015). The exopolysaccharides are primarily divided into three main classes: (i) architectural, (ii) aggregative, and (iii) protective based upon their role in biofilm development.
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