Potential promising anticancer applications of ß-glucans: a review

ss-Glucans are valuable functional polysaccharides distributed in nature, especially in the cell walls of fungi, yeasts, bacteria, and cereals. The unique features of ss-glucans, such as water solubility, viscosity, molecular weight, and so on, have rendered them to be broadly applied in various food systems as well as in medicine to improve human health. More-over, inhibition of cancer development could be achieved by an increase in immune sys-tem activity via ss-glucans. ss-glucans, which are part of a class of naturally occurring sub-stances known as biological response modifiers (BRMs), have also shown evidence of being anti-tumorogenic, anti-cytotoxic, and anti-mutagenic. These properties make them attrac-tive candidates for use as pharmaceutical health promoters. Along these lines, they could activate particular proteins or receptors, like lactosylceramide (LacCer), Dickin-1, comple-ment receptor 3 (CR3), scavenge receptors (SR), and the toll-like receptor (TLR). This would cause the release of cytokines, which would then activate other antitumor immune cells, like macrophages stimulating neutrophils and monocytes. These cells are biased toward pro-inflammatory cytokine synthesis and phagocytosis enhancing the elicited immunologi-cal responses. So, to consider the importance of ss-glucans, the present review introduces the structure characteristics, biological activity, and antitumor functions of fungal ss-glucans, as well as their application.