Sustainable production and pharmaceutical applications of β-glucan from microbial sources.

Emma J Murphy, Emanuele Rezoagli, Catherine Collins, Sushanta Kumar Saha, Ian Major, Patrick Murray

Microbiological research 2023 Sep

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β-glucans are a large class of complex polysaccharides found in abundant sources. Our dietary sources of β-glucans are cereals that include oats and barley, and non-cereal sources can consist of mushrooms, microalgae, bacteria, and seaweeds. There is substantial clinical interest in β-glucans; as they can be used for a variety of diseases including cancer and cardiovascular conditions. Suitable sources of β-glucans for biopharmaceutical applications include bacteria, microalgae, mycelium, and yeast. Environmental factors including culture medium can influence the biomass and ultimately β-glucan content. Therefore, cultivation conditions for the above organisms can be controlled for sustainable enhanced production of β-glucans. This review discusses the various sources of β-glucans and their cultivation conditions that may be optimised to exploit sustainable production. Finally, this article discusses the immune-modulatory potential of β-glucans from these sources. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

Citation

Emma J Murphy, Emanuele Rezoagli, Catherine Collins, Sushanta Kumar Saha, Ian Major, Patrick Murray. Sustainable production and pharmaceutical applications of β-glucan from microbial sources. Microbiological research. 2023 Sep;274:127424