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How to analyze the anticoagulant and antithrombotic mechanisms of action in fucanome and galactanome?

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Abstract

Through the perspective of the current glycomics age, fucanomics and galactanomics denote the international projects concerned with the studies of the biomedically active marine sulfated fucose- or galactose-composed polysaccharides, named sulfated fucans (SFs), and sulfated galactans (SGs), respectively. SFs and SGs are isolated from algae or marine invertebrates. The range of therapeutic actions of SFs and SGs is impressively broad. When certain structural requirements are found, some SFs and SGs may exhibit beneficial properties in inflammation, nociception, hemostasis (coagulation and thrombosis), vascular biology (angiogenesis), oncology, oxidative-stress, and virus infections. Although many biomedical applications for SFs and SGs have been pointed out over the past two decades, only inflammation, hemostasis, cancer, and vascular biology have their mechanisms of action satisfactorily elucidated. In addition, advanced structure-function relationships have been achieved only for the anticoagulant and antithrombotic activities, in which glycans of well-defined structures have been assayed. Because of this, the activities of SFs and SGs in stopping the clot and thrombus formation represent the closest therapeutic areas of having these glycans truly explored for drug development. Here, through an analytical viewpoint, we present the common methods and protocols employed to achieve such advanced structure-function relationships of SFs and SGs in anticoagulation and antithrombosis.

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Abbreviations

ADP:

adenosine diphosphate

aPTT:

activated partial thromboplastin time

AT:

antithrombin

bFGF:

basic fibroblast growth factor

HCII:

heparin cofactor II

HMWK:

high-molecular-weight kininogen

IU:

international unit

KccT:

kaolin cephalin clotting time

PBS:

phosphate-buffered saline

PPP:

platelet-poor plasma

PRP:

platelet-rich plasma

PT:

prothrombin time

PTT:

partial thromboplastin time

SFs:

sulfated fucans

SGs:

sulfated galactans

TCT:

thrombin clotting time

TF:

tissue factor

TT:

thrombin time

UFH:

unfractionated heparin

VEGF:

vascular endothelial growth factor

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Conflict of interest

Although this document comprises a review in which most of the information sources are coming from already published materials, the use of the current information was totally done under legal procedures regarding the law of copyrights, reprints and permission. The authors state that he is not aware of any authorship, affiliations, memberships, funding, or financial holdings that might be perceived as damaged or as affecting the objectivity of the content of this material. The author declares no conflict of interest by any part.

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  1. Program of Glycobiology, Institute of Medical Biochemistry, University Hospital Clementino Fraga Filho, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21941-913, Brazil

    Vitor H. Pomin

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  1. Vitor H. Pomin
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Correspondence to Vitor H. Pomin.

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Pomin, V.H. How to analyze the anticoagulant and antithrombotic mechanisms of action in fucanome and galactanome?. Glycoconj J 31, 89–99 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10719-013-9509-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10719-013-9509-3

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