Research progress on the mechanism of anti-tumor metastasis effect of natural polysaccharides
Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, with 19.29 million new cases of cancer reported in 2020, posing a serious threat to human survival and health. Metastasis is a key factor leading to the lethality of malignant tumors, with most patients dying from the spread of the tumor to other organs rather than from the primary tumor. The existing treatment methods mainly include surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, but they all have limitations such as strong toxic side effects and easy recurrence. Therefore, exploring new safe and effective anti-tumor metastasis drugs has important clinical significance. In recent years, polysaccharides have received increasing attention due to their important biological activities such as anti-tumor, immune regulation, antioxidant, and hypoglycemic effects. Polysaccharides, also known as polysaccharides, are large natural active substances composed of more than 10 monosaccharides connected by glycosidic chains. They are widely present in the cell walls of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. More and more studies have shown that natural polysaccharides can inhibit tumor metastasis through various pathways, but currently there is a relative lack of reviews on the mechanism of natural polysaccharides in anti-tumor metastasis. This article reviews the anti-tumor metastasis effects and mechanisms of natural polysaccharides in recent years, in order to provide new theoretical basis for the development of anti-tumor metastasis drugs and the treatment of malignant tumor metastasis.

 

Numerous clinical studies have shown that approximately 90% of cancer deaths are due to tumor invasion and metastasis. The existing treatment options are not satisfactory in terms of both the effectiveness of anti-tumor metastasis and toxic side effects. Although the research on safe and low toxicity natural polysaccharides in anti-tumor metastasis has been effective, there are still some problems that restrict the further application of natural polysaccharides in clinical treatment: ① Due to the complexity of polysaccharide structure, most studies are limited to the biological activity mechanism of polysaccharides, and ignore the relationship between polysaccharide structure and polysaccharides. Therefore, future research needs to focus on the structure-activity relationship of polysaccharides, especially the influence of higher structures on activity; ② There is a close relationship between EMT and CSC, and there is also a high degree of overlap in the stimuli induced by both. At present, research on the anti-tumor metastasis of natural polysaccharides is often limited to EMT, and there is little research on CSC, even completely separating the two. Therefore, finding common inhibitors for these two pathways may be a research trend in the future of natural polysaccharides for anti-tumor metastasis.