title: Anti-diabetic polysaccharides from natural sources: A review.
abstract: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease attracted worldwide concerns, which severely impairs peoples' quality of life and is attributed to several life-threatening complications, including atherosclerosis, nephropathy and retinopathy. The current therapies for DM include mainly oral anti-diabetic drugs and insulin. However, continuous use of these causes insulin resistance and side-effects, and the demand of effective, nontoxic and affordable drugs for DM patients is eager. Several previous studies have shown that non-toxic biological macromolecules, mainly polysaccharides, possess prominent efficacies on DM. Based on these encouraging observations, a great deal of efforts have been focused on discovering anti-diabetic polysaccharides for the development of effective therapeutics for DM. This review focuses on the advancements in the anti-diabetic efficacy of various natural polysaccharides and polysaccharide complexes from 2010 to 2015.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chinese Materia Medica (Ministry of Education), Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin 150040, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Peng-Cheng
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chinese Materia Medica (Ministry of Education), Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin 150040, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chinese Materia Medica (Ministry of Education), Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin 150040, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Bing-You
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chinese Materia Medica (Ministry of Education), Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin 150040, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: qhwang668@sina.com.
authors.forename: Qiu-Hong
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chinese Materia Medica (Ministry of Education), Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin 150040, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: hxkuang@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Hai-Xue
authors.initials: HX
authors.lastname: Kuang
mesh_terms: D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000188:drug therapy; D055808:Drug Discovery; D006801:Humans; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011788:Quality of Life
chemical_list: D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D011134:Polysaccharides
keywords: Diabetes mellitus; Mushroom; Plants; Polysaccharide complexes; Polysaccharides