

Bioactive Polysaccharides From Natural Resources For Cancer Therapy
Journal: Current Cancer Drug Targets
Guest Editor(s): Dr. Kenneth To
Co-Guest Editor(s):
Submission closes on:
23rd January, 2026
Introduction
Bioactive polysaccharides from natural resources exhibit diverse therapeutic properties including anticancer, antioxidant, antidiabetic, immunostimulatory activity, and promotion of wound healing. In the past decades, most studies focused on the extraction and identification of polysaccharides, as well as their biological activities. A large number of bioactive polysaccharides with different structural features and biological effects have been purified and characterized from popular medicinal plants, such as Astragalus membranaceus, Acanthopanax senticosus, Angelica sinensis (Oliv.), Aloe barbadensis Miller and Cactus fruits. It is important to understand the active ingredients in the polysaccharides and their molecular targets responsible for the observed therapeutic effects. Bioactive polysaccharides have been shown to exert their anticancer effect via a direct action (inhibition of cancer cell proliferation and/or induction of apoptosis) and an indirect action (stimulation of immunity). Polysaccharides have also been combined with chemotherapeutic drugs to potentiate the anticancer activity. The aim of this thematic issue is to compile a collection of updated review about the anticancer efficacy and immunomodulatory effect of bioactive polysaccharides alone or their combination with cancer chemotherapy.
Keywords
Polysaccharides, Traditional Chinese herbs, Anticancer activity, Immunostimulatory, Antioxidation, Drug resistance
Sub-topics
- Effect of bioactive polysaccharides in gut microbial ecology and physiology
- Extraction, purification and structural analysis of polysaccharide
- Diverse pharmacological activities of plant polysaccharides
- Immunomodulatory effect of plant polysaccharides
- Anticancer activity of bioactive polysaccharides from traditional Chinese medicine