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Recent advances in natural polysaccharides for type 2 diabetes management: sources, structural characteristics, and mechanistic insights

Summary

Natural polysaccharides from plants, mushrooms, and seaweed show promise as treatments for type 2 diabetes. These complex sugar molecules work through multiple mechanisms including improving how the body uses insulin, reducing inflammation and oxidative stress, and promoting beneficial gut bacteria. The effectiveness of these polysaccharides depends on their specific chemical structure, particularly their molecular weight and how their sugar units are linked together.

Background

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) represents a major global health burden with limited efficacy of current therapeutic strategies due to poor bioavailability, high cost, and adverse effects. Natural polysaccharides have emerged as promising therapeutic metabolites with broad sources, favorable safety profiles, and stable efficacy for diabetes management.

Objective

This review systematically summarizes the sources, structural characteristics, and mechanisms of action of natural polysaccharides with anti-T2DM activity. It focuses on their multi-target regulatory effects in mitigating T2DM and its complications while establishing structure-activity relationships.

Results

Natural polysaccharides from diverse sources demonstrate multi-mechanistic anti-diabetic effects through insulin resistance amelioration, inflammation reduction, oxidative stress mitigation, gut microbiota modulation, and mitochondrial dysfunction reversal. Key structural features including optimal molecular weight ranges (10-50 kDa), specific glycosidic linkages (1→3, 1→4, 1→6), and branched architectures correlate with therapeutic efficacy.

Conclusion

Natural polysaccharides represent promising structure-optimized therapeutics for T2DM management with multi-target regulatory capacity and minimal adverse effects. Establishing comprehensive structure-activity relationships through advanced analytical techniques provides a conceptual framework for developing polysaccharide-based therapeutics and functional foods.
  • Published in:Frontiers in Pharmacology,
  • Study Type:Review,
  • Source: PMC12757694, PMID: 41487501
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