Pectins are plant cell wall natural heteropolysaccharides composed mainly of α-1-4 d-galacturonic acid units, which may or may not be methyl esterified, possesses neutral sugars branching that harbor functional moieties. Physicochemical features as pH, temperature, ions concentration, and cosolute presence, affect directly the extraction yield and gelling capacity of pectins. The chemical and structural features of this polysaccharide enables its interaction with a wide range of molecules, a property that scientists profit from to form new composite matrices for target/controlled delivery of therapeutic molecules, genes or cells. Considered a prebiotic dietary fiber, pectins meetmany regulations easily, regarding health applications within the pharmaceutical industry as a raw material and as an agent for the prevention of cancer. Thus, this review lists many emergent pectin-based composite materials which will probably palliate the impact of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, aid to forestall actual epidemics, expand the ken of food additives and food products design.

Pectin and Pectin-Based Composite Materials: Beyond Food Texture

Pectin is a constituent of the cell walls of fruits and vegetables, and provides an important source of dietary fibre, as well as being a functional ingredient in processed foods. In addition to the health benefits associated with dietary fibre, new health claims are emerging, particularly with regard to the bioactive roles for modified pectin as an anti-cancer agent. These suggest that the modification creates molecular fragments, some of which may bind to and inhibit the various actions of the pro-metastatic protein galectin-3. The evidence for such a mechanism and the nature of the bioactive fragments will be discussed.

Pectin – An emerging new bioactive food polysaccharide

Pectin, a complex class of plant polysaccharides, is composed of a galacturonan backbone and neutral sugar side chains. Natural pectin is reported to prevent colon cancer as a dietary fiber (DF). To enhance its bioavailability and bioactivity, pectin was modified into bioavailable modified pectin fragments (MPs) with low molecular mass. Also, MPs had low degrees of esterification (DE) which is reported to inhibit tumor growth, induce apoptosis, suppress metastasis, and modulate immunological responses. Antitumor activity of MPs chiefly arises from intervention in ligand recognition by galectin-3 (Gal-3). In addition, pectin is a suitable vehicle for anti-cancer drug delivery systems, due to its abundant modifiable functional groups and special physicochemical properties. Here, we summarize the structural features, bio-absorption and antitumor mechanisms and the structure-activity relationship of MPs. We also offer prospects and challenges for developing pectin into nutraceuticals or drugs.

Pectin in cancer therapy: A review

The incidence and mortality of cancer have increased over the past decades. Significant progress has been made in understanding the underpinnings of this disease and developing therapies. Despite this, cancer still remains a major therapeutic challenge. Current therapeutic research has targeted several aspects of the disease such as cancer development, growth, angiogenesis and metastases. Many molecular and cellular mechanisms remain unknown and current therapies have so far failed to meet their intended potential. Recent studies show that glycans, especially oligosaccharide chains, may play a role in carcinogenesis as recognition patterns for galectins. Galectins are members of the lectin family, which show high affinity for β-galactosides. The galectin–glycan conjugate plays a fundamental role in metastasis, angiogenesis, tumor immunity, proliferation and apoptosis. Galectins’ action is mediated by a structure containing at least one carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD). The potential prognostic value of galectins has been described in several neoplasms and helps clinicians predict disease outcome and determine therapeutic interventions. Currently, new therapeutic strategies involve the use of inhibitors such as competitive carbohydrates, small non-carbohydrate binding molecules and antibodies. This review outlines our current knowledge regarding the mechanism of action and potential therapy implications of galectins in cancer.

/pdf/galectin-targeted-therapy-in-oncology-current-knowledge-and-4z8a0bqecl.pdf

Galectin Targeted Therapy in Oncology: Current Knowledge and Perspectives.

The bioactivity of modified pectin fragments

Purpose: We conducted a pilot trial to assess the tolerability, clinical benefit and antitumoral efficacy of modified (hydrolysed) citrus pectin (MCP) in 49 patients with various solid tumors in an advanced state of progression. MCP are hydrolysed from polysaccharide pectin fi bers, derived from citrus fruits and acting as a ligand for Galectin-3. Preclinical investigations revealed an efficient inhibition of tumor development and metastasis in various tumor models.

Patients and Methods: The treatment consisted of the oral intake of 5 g MCP three times a day. One cycle of therapy was defined as 4 weeks of treatment. Objectives were clinical benefi t (pain, functional performance, weight change), safety, tumor response (RESIST criteria) and quality of life (EORTC QLQ30).

Results: 49 patients were enrolled, 29 patients were able to be evaluated for clinical benefit after 2 cycles of treatment. All patients tolerated the therapy well without any severe therapy-related adverse events. After 2 cycles of oral intake of MCP, 6/29 patients (20.7%) had an overall clinical benefit response associated with a stabilization or improvement of life quality.

On an intent to treat basis 11/49 patients (22,5%) showed a stable disease (SD) after 2 cycles and 6/49 patients (12,3%) had a SD for a period longer than 24 weeks. One patient suffering from metastasized prostate carcinoma showed a 50% decrease in serum PSA level after 16 weeks of treatment associated with a significant increase of clinical benefit, quality of life and decrease in pain.

Conclusion: MCP seems to have positive impacts especially regarding clinical benefit and life quality for patients with far advanced solid tumors. The presented preliminary data encourage us to further investigate the role of MCP in cancer prevention and treatment.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.4137/CMO.S285

Clinical Benefit in Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors Treated with Modified Citrus Pectin: A Prospective Pilot Study

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Manfred E. Heim

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Clinical Benefit in Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors Treated with Modified Citrus Pectin: A Prospective Pilot Study