Biomedical Application of Marine-Derived Carbohydrates

Dear Colleagues,                

Carbohydrates are known as the most abundant naturally produced biomolecules. They are also listed as the most structurally complicated molecules. Carbohydrates serve not only as major energy sources and structural components, but also as bioactive compounds. Through their interaction with myriad proteins, carbohydrates play vital biological functions in signaling transduction, pathogen recognition, tumor metastasis, cellular communication and more. 

The great diversity of marine organisms provides a vast source of carbohydrates (such as sulfated fucans, sulfated galactans and glycosaminoglycan (GAG)) with nutritional and biomedical/therapeutic values and applications. Carbohydrates (polysaccharides, oligosaccharides) purified from various marine organisms have been reported to have numerous bioactivities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant, anticancer and anti-virus. For example, many marine-sulfated glycans were recently reported to have potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity by inhibiting the binding of the viral surface S-protein to the receptors on host cells.

The main goal of this Special Issue is to highlight the progress of marine-derived carbohydrates in drug discovery and development. We invite scientific researchers in this field to submit reviews or research articles to cover the following topics: (i) the purification and structural characterization of novel marine-based carbohydrates; (ii) innovative analytical methods used for the structural characterization of carbohydrates; (iii) the potential of marine-based carbohydrates as therapeutics, such as anticancer, anti-neurodegenerative diseases and anti-viral agents; (iv) and mechanistic study on the bioactivity of marine-based carbohydrates.

Prof. Dr. Fuming Zhang
Dr. Yuefan Song
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.