Natural Polysaccharides as Immunomodulator for COVID-19; A Review

Abstract

Natural Polysaccharides have been considered to be the most promising materials in recent years because of their numerous advantages including their accessibility, non-toxic, biocompatible, biodegradable, and ease of modification.Natural substanceswith pharmacotherapy potential are currently viewed as a promising future alternative to conventional therapy.With the rapid development of analytical techniquesandbiotechnologies,a large number of methods for identifying and quantifying polysaccharides without causing adverse effects have been created, resulting in the use of natural substances with established safety. Some bioactive polysaccharides obtained from natural sources have received a lot of attention in the field of biochemistry and pharmacology in recent years.Natural polysaccharides have been found in studies to boost innate immunity by activating upstream immune cells, hence regulating adaptive immunological pathways such as T cells and improving the efficacy of immunotherapy, implying that polysaccharides have a promising future in immunotherapy. As there is no targeted therapy available but these natural polysaccharides have been shown to possess complex, important and multifaceted biological activities including antitumor, anticoagulant, antioxidant, antiviral, immunomodulatory and antihyperlipidemic activities. Their properties are mainly due to their structural characteristics and are useful for combating various diseases as well improving immunity. Thus, polysaccharides can be used as an activating agent of immune system, minimising the damage caused by infectious agents such as SARS-CoV-2. Finally, these biopolymers can still be exploited to produce new treatments and vaccines.The present paper summarizes an overview of natural polysaccharides with immune boosting properties.