A recent study has revealed the effects of fucoidan as an effective treatment for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
Fucoidan exerts a hypolipidemic effect by increasing the reverse transport of cholesterol, inhibiting lipid synthesis, reducing lipid accumulation, and increasing lipid metabolism. Inflammation, anti-oxidation, and so on have a regulatory effect in the process of atherosclerosis endothelial cells, macrophages, smooth muscle cells, and so on; fucoidan can not only prevent thrombosis through anticoagulation and regulate platelet activation, but also promote the dissolution of formed thrombi.
Fucoidan is a marine polysaccharide. In recent years, fucoidan has attracted wide-scale attention from the pharmaceutical industries due to its diverse biological activities such as lipid-lowering, anti-atherosclerosis, and anticoagulation.
The extract has a neuroprotective effect, and also has a positive effect on the prognosis of the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular. The prospects of applying fucoidan in cardio-cerebrovascular diseases are reviewed to provide some theoretical bases and inspirations for its full-scale development and utilisation.
The anti-inflammatory, lipid-lowering, and antioxidant effects of fucoidan can have a positive impact over the entire course of atherosclerosis
The incidence of cardiovascular disease is increasing year by year, and CVD has become the main cause of mortality worldwide; if reasonable treatment is not available soon, the conditions will lead to many more deaths. Fucoidan is a complex marine acidic polysaccharide with diverse biological activities that is found in a wide range of organisms, and it can play an important therapeutic role at all stages of cardiovascular disease: initial hyperlipidemia, the formation of fat streaks in the arteries, lipid accumulation, fibrous plaques, atherosclerotic plaques, plaque hemorrhage and rupture, thrombosis, and cerebral infarction.
Hyperlipidemia is the basis of many cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and fucoidan has shown particularly diverse and potent effects on lipid levels. The anti-inflammatory, lipid-lowering, and antioxidant effects of fucoidan can have a positive impact over the entire course of atherosclerosis, and its prospects as a treatment for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are good.
Although fucoidan has a wide range of biological activities and promising preclinical effects, there are still some problems that need to be urgently solved before fucoidan can be developed as a drug. As a marine polysaccharide, its specific structure is still unclear, and its sulfate content, monosaccharide content, and molecular weight vary greatly among the different sources and extraction methods. Furthermore, the relationship between its composition and activity remains uncertain.
Research on polysaccharides brings certain difficulties, and clarifying the molecular structure of fucoidan is still a major challenge. It is known that fucoidan is a high-polarity polymer compound with limited absorption in the human body. In addition, there have been few studies to date on its pharmacokinetics, and further research to determine its clinical dosage, drug efficacy, toxicity, and so on is of great significance. Therefore, the clinical application of fucoidan will require substantial effort. However, an increasing number of people use fucoidan as a dietary supplement and health product, and fucoidan should have broader research value as a therapeutic drug for cardiovascular diseases.