Advances in Heparin, Heparan Sulfate and Heparanase, 2nd Edition
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Macromolecules".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 February 2026 | Viewed by 814
Special Issue Editor
Interests: allergy; cancer metastasis; fibrosis; infectious diseases; inflammation; cytokines/chemokines; extracellular matrix; glycosaminoglycans; heparan sulfate; heparanase; heparin; inbibitor development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Heparin has been used in many different types of medical and therapeutic applications, including the prevention of COVID-19 infection-associated symptoms. The anticoagulant action of heparin has been well described. In addition, heparin and a related carbohydrate, heparan sulfate, exert non-anticoagulant actions, i.e., they can interact and potentially regulate hundreds of functional proteins including growth factors, cytokines/chemokines, enzymes, danger-associated molecular patterns, extracellular matrix proteins, cell surface proteins, viral proteins, etc. It is known that the pentasaccharide sequence in heparin specifically interacts with antithrombin III; however, it is still a challenge to understand how the diversified anionic patterns inside heparin and heparan sulfate interact with other functional proteins.
Changes in the nature of the anionic carbohydrates, i.e., size, electrostatic potential, and location (soluble or membrane/matrix-bound), greatly influence protein functions and various biological events. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the cleaved carbohydrate fragments can independently transduce inflammatory signals. Such postsynthetic changes can be achieved by the action of editing enzymes such as heparanase and sulfatases. Heparanase, an endoglycosidase of heparin/heparan sulfate, cleaves the carbohydrates and thereby influences a vast field of biological events such as cancer malignancy, angiogenesis, inflammation, fibrosis, viral infection, etc.
This Special Issue will include papers investigating the underlying molecular mechanisms that explain the biological, pathological, and therapeutic actions of heparin, heparan sulfate, and heparanase, the development of heparanase inhibitors, etc. Original research and review papers are welcome.
Due to the success of the first edition of this Special Issue, we would like to add more results and new insights from recent research projects (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms/special_issues/Heparin_Heparan_Sulfate).
Prof. Dr. Nobuaki Higashi
Guest Editor
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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Keywords
- allergy
- angiogenesis
- cancer metastasis
- cellular trafficking
- exosome
- fibrosis
- glycocalyx
- glycosaminoglycans
- heparan sulfate
- heparanase
- heparin
- immune responses
- inflammation
- inbibitor development
- sepsis/SIRS (systemic inflammatory response syndrome)
- sulfatase
- viral infections
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