Marine Polysaccharides in Medical and Biotechnological Applications

A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Biotechnology Related to Drug Discovery or Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2025 | Viewed by 489

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Viale Ferdinando Stagno D’Alcontres 31, 98166 Messina, Italy
Interests: microbial ecology bioremediation; blue biotechnologies; exopolysaccharides; microbial biofilm
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Environmental Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Universidad de Concepcion, Concepcion 4070386, Chile
Interests: microbial ecology; bioremediation; bionanotechnological; bacteria–metal interaction; bioprocess

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Viale Ferdinando Stagno D’Alcontres 31, 98166 Messina, Italy
Interests: applied phycology; plant biology; polysaccharides; marine plants

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We encourage you to submit to Marine Drugs’ Special Issue on “Marine Polysaccharides in Medical and Biotechnological Applications”. Polysaccharides, produced by marine macroalgae, microalgae, and bacteria, are involved in marine organisms’ structural and storage functions and could represent one of their strategies to adapt themself to diverse environments, characterized by fluctuating temperatures, salinity, pH, and nutrients. Polysaccharides are involved in cell interaction and adhesion to substrates, contrasting seawater's high ionic strength and forming a protective barrier against physical, chemical, and biological stresses such as biofilm.

Marine organisms produce a large variety of polysaccharides with unique chemical structures and interesting physicochemical and rheological properties (i.e., viscoelasticity, surfactant, and emulsifying activity) and biological activities as antioxidants, immunostimulants, antimicrobials, and antivirals. Moreover, they can be used as biodegradable scaffold materials in regenerative medicine as coating agents for medical and non-medical applications. As the Guest Editors of this Special Issue of Marine Drugs, we invite you to contribute recent advances in all aspects of marine polysaccharides, identifying their structures and recognizing their effectiveness in future biotechnological applications. We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Dr. Vincenzo Zammuto
Dr. Víctor L. Campos
Dr. Damiano Spagnuolo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Marine Drugs is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • antioxidant
  • antimicrobial
  • biomedical applications
  • biotechnology
  • bioremediation
  • polysaccharides
  • phycocolloids

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

17 pages, 1991 KiB  
Article
Chitosan Oligosaccharides Prevent Alcohol-Induced Liver Disease by Attenuating Inflammation and Oxidative Stress
by Yanglong Liu, Jiawei Sun, Qihao Yan, Bingjian Wen, Yan Bai, Qishi Che, Hua Cao, Jiao Guo and Zhengquan Su
Mar. Drugs 2025, 23(3), 134; https://doi.org/10.3390/md23030134 - 19 Mar 2025
Viewed by 278
Abstract
Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a liver disorder resulting from excessive alcohol intake, and currently, there are no therapeutics approved by the FDA for its treatment. This study investigates the protective effects and underlying pharmacological mechanisms of two chitosan oligosaccharides, COST (MW ≤ [...] Read more.
Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a liver disorder resulting from excessive alcohol intake, and currently, there are no therapeutics approved by the FDA for its treatment. This study investigates the protective effects and underlying pharmacological mechanisms of two chitosan oligosaccharides, COST (MW ≤ 1000 Da) and COSM (MW ≤ 3000 Da), in mitigating alcohol-induced liver disease (ALD). In animal models, we evaluated the changes in ALD following treatment with COST and COSM. Histopathological analysis revealed that both COST and COSM interventions mitigated hepatic steatosis and inflammatory infiltration. Additionally, these compounds reduced various markers of liver injury, enhanced antioxidant enzyme levels, and significantly improved liver function. Western blot analysis demonstrated that COSM markedly decreased the expression of the hepatic metabolic enzyme CYP2E1, activated the Keap-1/Nrf-2/HO-1 pathway, and restrained the NF-κB and MAPK pathways. In an in vitro model of alcohol-induced hepatocyte L02 injury, both COST and COSM exhibited protective effects on hepatocytes, corroborating the findings from the animal studies. Collectively, in vivo and in vitro experiments confirmed that COST and COSM can reduce oxidative damage, enhance antioxidant capacity, and ameliorate steatosis and inflammatory damage in the liver, thereby significantly attenuating alcohol-induced injury. Notably, COSM exhibited slightly superior efficacy compared to COST. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Polysaccharides in Medical and Biotechnological Applications)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop