Structural characteristics and immunomodulatory effects of sulfated polysaccharides derived from marine algae

Abstract

Marine algae are becoming an important source of valuable candidates of functional food that remain unexplored. Compositional analysis showed that marine algae contain essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and minerals, of which polysaccharides are the main bioactive component. Depending on the source, marine algae polysaccharides are sulfated, which have diverse structures and compositions that influence their biological activities. A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that sulfated polysaccharides derived from marine algae (SPs) exhibit various bioactivities, especially immunomodulation. This review aims at summarizing the structural characteristics of SPs, their immunomodulatory effects, and the structural-immunomodulatory activity relationships between them from articles in recent decade, in order to provide a theoretical basis for the further applications of SPs as promising food or feed additives and possible health products to modulate the immune response.

Keywords:

• Sulfated polysaccharide
• marine algae
• structure
• bioactivities
• immunomodulatory effect

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no personal or financial conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the earmarked fund for the Key Collaborative Research Program of the Alliance of International Science Organizations (Grant No. ANSO-CR-KP-2021-10), Science and Technology Partnership Program, Ministry of Science and Technology of China (KY202001017), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation-Funded Project (2021M693383), and Taishan Industry Leading Talent Blue Talent Project.