Advanced Pharmacological Uses of Marine Algae as an Anti-Diabetic Therapy

Abstract

Marine seaweeds are a promising source of bioactive secondary metabolites that can be utilized in drug development and nutraceuticals. Diabetes mellitus is a leading non-communicable disease, and it is the third leading cause of death worldwide. Among the types of diabetes, type 2 became the major health problem as it is associated with severe health complications. Since available oral hypoglycemic drugs cause several adverse effects, it is worth searching for a natural cure with fewer or no side effects that may benefit patients with type 2 diabetes. Among the marine seaweeds, brown and red seaweeds are extensively studied for the anti-diabetic activity compared to the green seaweeds. Bioactive compounds present in marine seaweeds possess anti-diabetic potential through diverse mechanisms, mainly by reducing postprandial hyperglycemia and associated complication. Most of the studies emphasized that the marine seaweeds control the hyperglycemic condition by inhibiting carbohydrate hydrolyzing α-amylase,α glucosidase enzymes, and the inhibitory effect of dipeptide peptidase-4 that are involved in the degradation of incretins. Similarly, bioactive compounds in marine seaweeds can reduce diabetes complications by inhibiting angiotensin-converting enzymes, aldose reductase, protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B enzyme. This chapter focuses on the anti-diabetic potential of marine brown, green, and red seaweeds through different mechanisms.

Evaluation of in vitro antidiabetic and anti-microbial activity of edible red seaweed Porphyra vietnamensis

“…Seaweeds are marine macroalgae which have promising source for bioactive secondary metabolites which has vast application in development of drug and pharmaceutics. Porphyra vietnamensis is one such seaweed which is edible and being consumed by Asian countries [14]. Red seaweeds are found to be rich in sulphated polysaccharides [15].…”

Antioxidant and Antidiabetic Activity of Algae

“…Furthermore, seaweeds possess high concentrations of phenolic molecules, making them one of the greatest sources of natural antioxidants [ 69 ]. Several hundred molecules are classified as phenolic compounds because they have a benzene ring structure attached to at least one hydroxyl group [ 70 ].…”

Phytochemical variation, antioxidant and antidiabetic capacity of extracts of common brown seaweeds from the Red Sea, Egypt

“…The methanol extract of S. polycystum (96%) and ethyl acetate extract of S. wightii (91%) showed more effective inhibition of α-glucosidase than acarbose (Unnikrishnan et al, 2015). The highest inhibitory effects were for α-amylase (95.12%) with an IC 50 value of 2.9 mg/g DW, compared to an acarbose positive control (3.01) and α-glucosidase (83.31%) with 3.17 Marine algae have been a source of many medicines, since algal extracts are known to be effective inhibitors of α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and DPP-IV, due to the presence of various phytochemicals which bind to active sites and alter the catalytic activity of enzymes (Gunathilaka et al, 2021). As shown in Table "3", the antidiabetic activity of the macroalgal extracts might be due to the presence of various phytochemical substances like polyphenols, which bind to the active sites of the enzymes involved in diabetes and alter their catalytic activity, so the antidiabetic activity is correlated to the antioxidant activity (Ismail et al, 2020).…”