5.7 Applications of Fucoidan
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5.7.5 Antipathogenic Agent
Fucoidans have shown to act against a number of pathogens which include Leishmania parasite (Sharma et al. 2014), influenza virus (Synytsya et al. 2014), canine
distemper virus (trejo-Avila et al. 2014) and new castle virus (Elizondo-Gonzalez
et al. 2012). The mode of action includes inhibition of entry of these pathogens into
the cell and interfering with the pathogen’s defences against immune response of
the host. Due to the complex structure of fucoidan, various fractions of the polymer
could be responsible for different antipathogenic activities. Although much is yet
to be known of the specific mode of action, there are indications of what fractions
are active against certain pathogens, for example, low molecular weight sulfated
O-acetyl fucogalactan fraction of fucoidan with average molecular weight of 9 kDa
from the species Undaria pinnatifida orally administered to laboratory mice acted
against different forms of influenza virus infection (Hayashi et al. 2013; Synytsya
et al. 2014).
Fucoidans have shown antipathogenic response to a variety of diseases causing
organisms in a variety of organisms including humans, canines and birds with no
toxic effect on the body’s own cells. These findings are consistent across different
research groups.
Although fucoidans have not been identified to directly act against bacteria, their
antibacterial effect lies in their ability to boost the effectiveness of antibiotic agents
(Lee et al. 2013a, b). Such that, they can be used as an adjunct to antibacterial therapeutics or simply consumed as preventive care against bacterial infection. As much
of the known bacteria strains have developed one form of immunity against antibacterial drugs, the search for new measures against bacteria remains active. Fucoidan
could potentially have a significant economic impact as a versatile and readily available preventive and therapeutic biopolymer for bacterial infection. Tests carried out
on pseudomonas culture showed that fucoidan extracted from Ascophyllum nodosum
resulted in upregulation of the genes responsible for immune response in the organism, while the genes for metabolism, sensing and survival in the pathogenic bacteria were downregulated, showing that the particular fucoidan had, to great extent,
improved the resistance of the organism to bacterial infection (Kandasamy et al.
2015). Fucoidan has also shown to protect the body against damage by endotoxins
when taking either orally or injected subcutaneously (Kuznetsova et al. 2014).
The potential economic impact of such antipathogenic impact demonstrated by
fucoidan cuts across the human and animal healthcare industry and commercial
poultry, increasing the quality of life and compliance with an antipathogenic remedy which can be sourced from oral fucoidan preparations in the form of food
supplements.
111
5.7.5 Antipathogenic Agent
Fucoidans have shown to act against a number of pathogens which include Leishmania parasite (Sharma et al. 2014), influenza virus (Synytsya et al. 2014), canine
distemper virus (trejo-Avila et al. 2014) and new castle virus (Elizondo-Gonzalez
et al. 2012). The mode of action includes inhibition of entry of these pathogens into
the cell and interfering with the pathogen’s defences against immune response of
the host. Due to the complex structure of fucoidan, various fractions of the polymer
could be responsible for different antipathogenic activities. Although much is yet
to be known of the specific mode of action, there are indications of what fractions
are active against certain pathogens, for example, low molecular weight sulfated
O-acetyl fucogalactan fraction of fucoidan with average molecular weight of 9 kDa
from the species Undaria pinnatifida orally administered to laboratory mice acted
against different forms of influenza virus infection (Hayashi et al. 2013; Synytsya
et al. 2014).
Fucoidans have shown antipathogenic response to a variety of diseases causing
organisms in a variety of organisms including humans, canines and birds with no
toxic effect on the body’s own cells. These findings are consistent across different
research groups.
Although fucoidans have not been identified to directly act against bacteria, their
antibacterial effect lies in their ability to boost the effectiveness of antibiotic agents
(Lee et al. 2013a, b). Such that, they can be used as an adjunct to antibacterial therapeutics or simply consumed as preventive care against bacterial infection. As much
of the known bacteria strains have developed one form of immunity against antibacterial drugs, the search for new measures against bacteria remains active. Fucoidan
could potentially have a significant economic impact as a versatile and readily available preventive and therapeutic biopolymer for bacterial infection. Tests carried out
on pseudomonas culture showed that fucoidan extracted from Ascophyllum nodosum
resulted in upregulation of the genes responsible for immune response in the organism, while the genes for metabolism, sensing and survival in the pathogenic bacteria were downregulated, showing that the particular fucoidan had, to great extent,
improved the resistance of the organism to bacterial infection (Kandasamy et al.
2015). Fucoidan has also shown to protect the body against damage by endotoxins
when taking either orally or injected subcutaneously (Kuznetsova et al. 2014).
The potential economic impact of such antipathogenic impact demonstrated by
fucoidan cuts across the human and animal healthcare industry and commercial
poultry, increasing the quality of life and compliance with an antipathogenic remedy which can be sourced from oral fucoidan preparations in the form of food
supplements.