Structural Modification and Biological Activity of Polysaccharides
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript "Structural Modification and Biological Activity of Polysaccharides" presents an interesting compilation of existing literature on structural modifications of polysaccharides. However, it requires major modifications to be published.
Detailed notes:
Interesting methods of structural modification of polysaccharides are presented, but they are supported by only one article - please complete the literature and expand the paragraphs with the latest research (applies to most examples).
The chapter "Structural characterization of structurally modified polysaccharides" is written in an interesting way, but the authors should analyze the influence of modifications on the structure of polysaccharides in more detail.
Chapter 4.5. Antibacterial activity should be extended with the latest scientific report. It would be good if the authors also described the antifungal properties.
Line 363 - no italics.
In the list of references items 53-57 are not recorded in accordance with the publisher's guidelines.
The manuscript submitted for review lacks references to the latest scientific reports - very few literature items after 2020 are quoted, and in recent years there has been a significant development of the described methods.
English is fine
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
First of all, thank you very much for your comments on the manuscript (2487519), and these suggestions are very helpful to improve our manuscript. We have taken these suggestions and revised the manuscript according to the comments. The comments raised by the referees are answered and explained as follows:
Reviewer #1: The manuscript "Structural Modification and Biological Activity of Polysaccharides" presents an interesting compilation of existing literature on structural modifications of polysaccharides. However, it requires major modifications to be published. My comments are provided as:
- Interesting methods of structural modification of polysaccharides are presented, but they are supported by only one article - please complete the literature and expand the paragraphs with the latest research (applies to most examples).
Response： Thanks for your comments. We have revised the section on polysaccharide structural modifications and added recent research on polysaccharide structural modifications. We mark the modified part in red font.
- The chapter "Structural characterization of structurally modified polysaccharides" is written in an interesting way, but the authors should analyze the influence of modifications on the structure of polysaccharides in more detail.
Response： Thanks for your comments. We have included the effect of the structural modification on the structure of the glycan in the structural characterization section of the manuscript and marked it in red font.
- Chapter 4.5. Antibacterial activity should be extended with the latest scientific report. It would be good if the authors also described the antifungal properties.
Response： Thanks for your comments. The polysaccharide has been structurally modified to have antifungal activity, we have added this part to the manuscript and marked it in red font.
- Line 363 - no italics.
Response： Thanks for your comments. Line 363 of the manuscript does not require italics, so we did not italicize it.
- In the list of references items 53-57 are not recorded in accordance with the publisher's guidelines.
Response： Thanks for your comments. We have revised references 53-57 as requested and marked them in red font.
- The manuscript submitted for review lacks references to the latest scientific reports - very few literature items after 2020 are quoted, and in recent years there has been a significant development of the described methods.
Response： Thanks for your comments. We have referenced the literature after 2020 and added it to the manuscript. We have marked the revisions in red font.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Lactose/ and Lactulose/ArgNa+
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
First of all, thank you very much for your comments on the manuscript (2487519), and these suggestions are very helpful to improve our manuscript. We have taken these suggestions and revised the manuscript according to the comments. The comments raised by the referees are answered and explained as follows:
Reviewer #2: This paper presents a review on the structural modification and biological activity of polysaccha-2 rides. Although there appeared several Reviews on related topics, this work seems to be an addition for recent developments. I have several serious comments for the improvements of the manuscript. The manuscript is not publishable before the following revisions are made: My comments are provided as:
- In general, this Review is too succinct, omitting a lot of details. Words are not enough, Figures and Tables should be presented to really give concrete perspectives on the subject. I have not seen any scientific Review comprising of only verbal descriptions!! This is not literature!!
Response： Thanks for your comments. We have presented the main ideas, the structural modification and characterization of natural polysaccharides, and reviewed their biological activities in the graphic abstract of the manuscript. In addition, we compared various methods of structure modification, analyzing their advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, we regret to receive such a poor review.
However, we respect your opinion and have included the figure in the manuscript and highlighted it in red.
- -In Section 2 (Modification method of polysaccharide), the authors describe a number of chemical modifications (Sulfation, Phosphorylation, etc). It would be much more readable to add some representative chemical equations for each modification.
Response： Thanks for your comments. We have added the chemical reaction formulas for polysaccharide-based structural modifications to the manuscript and marked them in red font.
- -In Section 3 (Structural characterization of structurally modified polysaccharides), the authors give verbal descriptions only, thus, the presentations look too abstract. I recommend them to add experimental spectra and pictures from the cited References.
Response： Thanks for your comments. We have added the spectra from the reference and marked them in red font.
- -The same could be said of the Section 4 (Biological activity of structurally modified polysaccharides). The readers just cannot comprehend the progress of the subject field this way!!!
Response： Thanks for your comments. We have added the figure to the manuscript and marked it in red font.
- -It would be useful to give a short comment in Introduction on the developments and applications of artificial saccharides such as cyclodextrins and derivatives, along with citations of the following papers:
Crini, G.; Review: A History of Cyclodextrins, Chem. Rev. 2014, 114, 10940-10975.
- C. Dunbar, J. D. Steill, J. Oomens, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2011, 133, 1212–1215.
- Szejtli, Chem. Rev., 1998, 98, 1743–1754.
- Choi, Y.‑H. Oh, S. Park, S.‑S. Lee, H. B. Oh, S. Lee, Sci. Rep. 2022, 12, 8169.
- B. Lebrilla, Acc. Chem. Res. 2001, 34, 653–661.
- Li, E. P. A. Couzijn and X. Zhang, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2012, 116, 943–950.
- Filippi, C. Fraschetti, S. Piccirillo, F. Rondino, B. Botta, I. D’Acquarica, A. Calcaterra and M. Speranza, Chem. Eur. J. 2012, 18, 8320–8328.
Response： Thanks for your comments. We have included the current status of the application of artificial polysaccharides in the Introduction section, which is marked in red font.
- -The authors mostly (~90 %) cite the works by Chinese scientists. Although it is acknowledged that the subject is dominated by them, this is not a good practice. Please cite the following papers:
Shijie Li, Qingping Xiong, Xiaoping Lai, Xia Li, Mianjie Wan, Jingnian Zhang, Yajuan Yan, Man Cao, Lun Lu, Jiemin Guan, Danyan Zhang, Ying Lin, Molecular Modification of Polysaccharides and Resulting Bioactivities, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 2016, 15, 237‑250. Takahiro Sato, Jia Yang, Ken Terao, Micellar structure of hydrophobically modified polysaccharides in aqueous solution, Polymer Journal, 2022, 54, 403–412. Kirsti Parikka, Ann‑Sofie Leppänen, Leena Pitkänen, Markku Reunanen, Stefan Willför, Maija Tenkanen, Oxidation of Polysaccharides by Galactose Oxidase, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2010, 58, 262‑271. Shiori Suzuki, Yosuke Hamano, Naoki Wada, Kenji Takahashi, Controlled Allocation of Aromatic/Aliphatic Substituents to Polysaccharides and Lignin in Sugarcane Bagasse via Successive Homogeneous Transesterification Using Ionic Liquid, ACS Omega 2023, 8, 18582–18590. A. Durand, E. Marie, E. Rotureau, M. Leonard, E. Dellacherie, Amphiphilic Polysaccharides: Useful Tools for the Preparation of Nanoparticles with Controlled Surface Characteristics, Langmuir 2004, 20, 6956‑6963.
- Rinaudo, Role of Substituents on the Properties of Some Polysaccharides, Biomacromolecules 2004, 5, 1155‑1165.
Response： Thanks for your comments. We have enriched the references and marked them in red font.
- ‑Ref. 87 should be revised so that the names of the authors are explicit.
Response： Thanks for your comments. We have revised the references and marked them in red font.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript has been revised according to the reviewer's comments. I have no other comments.
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
First of all, thank you very much for your comments on the manuscript (2487519), and these suggestions are very helpful to improve our manuscript.
Reviewer #1: The manuscript has been revised according to the reviewer's comments. I have no other comments.
Response： Thank you for your support and affirmation of our manuscript.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript has improved considerably, however, the following revisions should be made before publication.
-Figures 9, 10, 11 are not good. The resolution should be improved.
-Please cite the following works on cyclodextrins in the References.
Crini, G.; Review: A History of Cyclodextrins, Chem. Rev. 2014, 114, 10940-10975.
Shahgaldian, P. & Pieles, U. Cyclodextrin derivatives as chiral supramolecular receptors for enantioselective sensing. Sensors 6, 593–615 (2006).
Hu, Q.-D., Tang, G.-P. & Chu, P. K. Cyclodextrin-based host–guest supramolecular nanoparticles for delivery: from design to applications. Acc. Chem. Res. 47, 2017–2025 (2014).
Choi, H., Oh, Y.‑H., Park, S., Lee, S.‑S., Oh, H. B., Lee, S. Unveiling Host-Guest-Solvent Interactions in Solution by Identifying Highly Unstable Host-Guest Configurations in Thermal Non-Equilibrium Gas Phase, Sci. Rep. 2022, 12, 8169.
Uekama, K., Hirayama, F. & Irie, T. Cyclodextrin drug carrier systems. (1998).
Cescutti, P., Garozzo, D. & Rizzo, R. Effect of methylation of β-cyclodextrin on the formation of inclusion complexes with aromatic compounds. An ionspray mass spectrometry investigation. Carbohydr. Res. 302, 1–6 (1997).
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
First of all, thank you very much for your comments on the manuscript (2487519), and these suggestions are very helpful to improve our manuscript. We have taken these suggestions and revised the manuscript according to the comments. The comments raised by the referees are answered and explained as follows:
Reviewer #2: The manuscript has improved considerably, however, the following revisions should be made before publication.
- -Figures 9, 10, 11 are not good. The resolution should be improved.
Response： Thanks for your comments. We adjusted the clarity of Figures 9, 10, 11.
- -Please cite the following works on cyclodextrins in the References.
Crini, G.; Review: A History of Cyclodextrins, Chem. Rev. 2014, 114, 10940-10975.
Shahgaldian, P. & Pieles, U. Cyclodextrin derivatives as chiral supramolecular receptors for enantioselective sensing. Sensors 6, 593–615 (2006).
Hu, Q.-D., Tang, G.-P. & Chu, P. K. Cyclodextrin-based host–guest supramolecular nanoparticles for delivery: from design to applications. Acc. Chem. Res. 47, 2017–2025 (2014).
Choi, H., Oh, Y.‑H., Park, S., Lee, S.‑S., Oh, H. B., Lee, S. Unveiling Host-Guest-Solvent Interactions in Solution by Identifying Highly Unstable Host-Guest Configurations in Thermal Non-Equilibrium Gas Phase, Sci. Rep. 2022, 12, 8169.
Uekama, K., Hirayama, F. & Irie, T. Cyclodextrin drug carrier systems. (1998).
Cescutti, P., Garozzo, D. & Rizzo, R. Effect of methylation of β-cyclodextrin on the formation of inclusion complexes with aromatic compounds. An ionspray mass spectrometry investigation. Carbohydr. Res. 302, 1–6 (1997).
Response： Thanks for your comments. We have inserted references into the manuscript following your comments.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
