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Natural Polysaccharide Nanomaterials: An Overview of Their Immunological Properties - PubMed

  • ️Tue Jan 01 2019

Review

Natural Polysaccharide Nanomaterials: An Overview of Their Immunological Properties

Fernando G Torres et al. Int J Mol Sci. 2019.

Abstract

Natural occurring polymers, or biopolymers, represent a huge part of our planet biomass. They are formed by long chains of monomers of the same type or a combination of different ones. Polysaccharides are biopolymers characterized by complex secondary structures performing several roles in plants, animals, and microorganisms. Because of their versatility and biodegradability, some of them are extensively used for packaging, food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical industries as sustainable and renewable materials. In the recent years, their manipulation at the nanometric scale enormously increased the range of potential applications, boosting an interdisciplinary research attempt to exploit all the potential advantages of nanostructured polysaccharides. Biomedical investigation mainly focused on nano-objects aimed at drug delivery, tissue repair, and vaccine adjuvants. The achievement of all these applications requires the deep knowledge of polysaccharide nanomaterials' interactions with the immune system, which orchestrates the biological response to any foreign substance entering the body. In the present manuscript we focused on natural polysaccharides of high commercial importance, namely, starch, cellulose, chitin, and its deacetylated form chitosan, as well as the seaweed-derived carrageenan and alginate. We reviewed the available information on their biocompatibility, highlighting the importance of their physicochemical feature at the nanoscale for the modulation of the immune system.

Keywords: Immune System; Nanomaterials; Polysaccharides.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1

Schematic representation of amylose (a) and amylopectin (b) macromolecules.

Figure 2
Figure 2

Representation of cytokine release and immune receptor expression induced by starch microfilms and polysaccharide nanoparticles (NPs).

Figure 3
Figure 3

Schematic representation of a cellulose macromolecule.

Figure 4
Figure 4

Cytokine release induced by cellulose nanostructures.

Figure 5
Figure 5

Schematic representation of (a) chitin and (b) chitosan macromolecules.

Figure 6
Figure 6

Cytokine release and receptor expression induced by chitin and chitosan NMs.

Figure 7
Figure 7

Schematic representation of a κ-carrageenan macromolecule.

Figure 8
Figure 8

Degraded carrageenan activation of monocytes.

Figure 9
Figure 9

Schematic representation of an alginate macromolecule.

Figure 10
Figure 10

Sodium alginate immune activation of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs).

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