Polysaccharides from Red Algae: Genesis of a Renaissance

CARLUCCI MARÍA JOSEFINA*, MATEU CECILIA GABRIELA, ARTUSO MARÍA CAROLINA, SCOLARO LUIS ALBERTO

Polysaccharides

InTech

Año: 2012;

This chapter describes the interaction of the human pathogen, herpes simplex virus with sulfated polysaccharides and the outcome of this interaction investigated from a point of view that goes beyond virus biology and melts with philosophy. Emergence of viral variants after selective pressure during virus multiplication with carrageenans extracted from the red seaweed Gigartina skottbergii are described along with their attenuation for mice and the speculation about their promising use in medicine. Also, the importance of virus-host co-evolution modulated by the presence of polysaccharides is discussed. The major interest of this chapter is to point out the use of natural chemical structures already "seen" by the pathogen along its entire evolutionary pathway, widely distributed in nature and present in the host as essential cellular components, as innovative systems to attenuate virus. This strategy may be considered also as component of a natural evolutionary process where the virus contributes with valuable information, for the future of species, generating a reciprocal benefit between host and virus. In this work we describe the use of natural chemical structures similar to cellular components in contact with the virus and show the characteristics of the asymptomatic variants obtained for human/mammalian application. Results presented here allow speculation about neo-darwinism and neo-lamarckism in the context of co-evolution between cells and viruses.