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Review
. 2010 Sep 2;8(9):2435-65.
doi: 10.3390/md8092435.

Marine polysaccharides in pharmaceutical applications: an overview

Paola Laurienzo  1
Affiliations
Review

Marine polysaccharides in pharmaceutical applications: an overview

Paola Laurienzo. Mar Drugs. .

Abstract

The enormous variety of polysaccharides that can be extracted from marine plants and animal organisms or produced by marine bacteria means that the field of marine polysaccharides is constantly evolving. Recent advances in biological techniques allow high levels of polysaccharides of interest to be produced in vitro. Biotechnology is a powerful tool to obtain polysaccharides from a variety of micro-organisms, by controlling the growth conditions in a bioreactor while tailoring the production of biologically active compounds. Following an overview of the current knowledge on marine polysaccharides, with special attention to potential pharmaceutical applications and to more recent progress on the discovering of new polysaccharides with biological appealing characteristics, this review will focus on possible strategies for chemical or physical modification aimed to tailor the final properties of interest.

Keywords: agar; alginate; carrageenans; chemical modification; chitosan; drug delivery; exopolysaccharides; gene delivery.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The synthetic strategy for preparing alginic acid sulfated derivatives.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The synthetic strategy for preparing chitin and chitosan sulfated derivatives [50].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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MeSH terms

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