Abstract
Polysaccharides are among the most important members of the biopolymer family. They are natural macromolecules composed of monosaccharides. To date, more than 300 kinds of natural polysaccharide compounds have been identified. They are present in plants, animals, and microorganisms, and they engage in a variety of physiological functions. In the 1950s, due to the discovery of their immunoregulatory and anti-tumor activities, polysaccharides became a popular topic of research in pharmacology, especially in immunopharmacology. Plants are an important source of natural polysaccharides. Pharmacological and clinical studies have shown that plant polysaccharides have many functions, such as immune regulation, anti-tumor activity, anti-inflammatory activity, anti-viral functions, anti-radiation functions, and a hypoglycaemic effect. The immunomodulatory effects of plant polysaccharides have received much attention. Polysaccharides with these effects are also referred to as biological response modifiers (BRMs), and research on them is one of the most active areas of polysaccharide research. Thus, we summarize immunomodulatory effects of botanical polysaccharides isolated from different species of plants on the macrophage. The primary effect of botanical polysaccharides is to enhance and/or activate macrophage immune responses, including increasing reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and enhancing secretion of cytokines and chemokines. Therefore, it is believed that botanical polysaccharides have significant therapeutic potential, and represent a new method for discovery and development of novel immunomodulatory medicine.
Highlights
A variety of polysaccharides have been discovered in different species of plants, and information about the structures and functional activities of some polysaccharides has been elucidated
The immunomodulatory effects of plant polysaccharides on macrophages are mainly achieved through the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the secretion of cytokines, cell proliferation, and the phagocytic activity of macrophages [38]
Most research has shown that plant polysaccharides activate macrophages by recognizing and binding to specific receptors on the surfaces of macrophages, which initiates the immune response and exerts an immunomodulatory effect
Summary
Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Resistance Biology, College of Life Sciences, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China. Specialty section: This article was submitted to Molecular Innate Immunity, a section of the journal
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