Polysaccharides from the green seaweeds Codium fragile and C. vermilara. Structure, localization and antiviral activity

LUCIANA KASULIN; AGUSTINA DE DIOS; JOSÉ M. ESTEVEZ; CARLOS A. PUJOL; ELSA B. DAMONTE; MARINA CIANCIA; ALBERTO S. CEREZO

Pinamar, Buenos Aires

Congreso; 10th Congress of the Panamerican Association of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; 2005

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular

POLYSACCHARIDES FROM THE GREEN SEAWEEDS CODIUM FRAGILE  AND C. VERMILARA. CHEMICAL STRUCTURE, LOCALIZATION AND ANTIVIRAL ACTIVITY Kasulin, Luciana1, De Dios Agustina1, Estevez, José M.1, Pujol, Carlos A.2, Damonte, Elsa B.2, Ciancia, Marina3, and Cerezo, Alberto S.1 1Departamento de Química Orgánica (CIHIDECAR-CONICET) and 2Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria - Pabellón 2, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina 3Cátedra de Química Orgánica, Departamento de Biología Aplicada y Alimentos (CIHIDECAR-CONICET), Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Avda. San Martín 4453, 1417 Buenos Aires, Argentina. Three different polysaccharides were present the in water extracts from both seaweeds; a water soluble sulfated arabinogalactan, a starch-type polysaccharide and a b(1®4)-d-mannan. The major product for the first species is a highly branched proteoglycan composed by a central chain of 3-linked arabinopyranose residues with long side chains of b-d-galactopyranose, partially sulfated on C-6 and also partially pyruvilated. All the extracts showed an important antiviral activity against herpes simplex viruses HSV-1 and HSV-2 (IC50< 1mg/ml, for some of them), however this activity is lost on partially degraded derivatives and they showed no important virucidal effect.