New Product:Low molecular weight chondroitin sulfate

Chondroitin sulfate (CS) is a type of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) that is widespread in the extracellular matrix (ECM) in the form of proteoglycans (CSPGs) and is covalently linked to core proteins through O-glycosidic bonds (Wang, Liu, et al., 2022). Due to carboxyl and sulfate groups, CS is an anionic sulfated polysaccharide. Currently, the majority of studies show that the CS part of CSPGs is responsible for their functions, whereas the core protein only acts as a scaffold (Kosuri et al., 2022; Raspa & Gelain, 2021). The disaccharide units of CS are formed by D-glucuronic acid (GlcA) and N-acetyl-D-galactosamine (GalNAc) linked by β-(1 → 3) bonds. The CS straight chain is composed of repeating disaccharide units connected by β-(1 → 4) glycosidic bonds, and its molecular weight is mostly between 5 and 50 kDa (Valcarcel et al., 2017). As shown in Fig. 1, CS could be classified into the five common types including O, A, C, D, and E according to the sulfation position in GlcA and GalNAc (Wang, Yang, et al., 2022). The molecular weight and type of CS are related to their sources, and CS from terrestrial and marine sources have different chain lengths and disaccharide compositions. CS from marine animal is mainly composed of CSC and disulfated disaccharide units, while CS from the terrestrial animal is dominated by CSA (Valcarcel et al., 2017). The molecular weight, length, sulfation position and extent of CS vary greatly. This structural diversity enables CS to have many functions.

As the main component of the extracellular matrix, CS can maintain and protect the extracellular microenvironment (Kang et al., 2018). Meanwhile, as a multifunctional signal molecule and regulator, CS can directly or indirectly affect the signal transmission process in cells and participate in various physiological activities (Köwitsch et al., 2018). CS has various biological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory (Restaino & Schiraldi, 2022), anticoagulant (Krichen et al., 2018), and immunoregulatory activity (Jiang et al., 2021). Therefore, CS can be widely used in drug or food formula. At present, CS is mainly administered orally in clinical practice. However, due to its structural characteristics such as considerable molecular weight, many hydrophilic groups and poor fat solubility, CS has incomplete absorption in vivo and low bioavailability. It belongs to class iii drugs with high solubility and poor membrane permeability in the biopharmaceutics classification system. Improving oral absorption performance is an urgent problem to be solved in strengthening clinical application. For oral preparations, the molecular weight is closely related to its bioavailability. Shang, Shi, et al. (2016) has shown that CS was poorly absorbed after oral administration (bioavailability was only 0–13 %). Barthe et al. (2004) have indicated that only a small amount of CS could pass through the small intestine after oral administration. Complete CS is difficult to be absorbed from the stomach and intestinal mucosa, while low molecular weight CS (LMCS) could pass through the gut (Shmagel et al., 2019). In addition, LMCS obtained by degradation of CS also showed better bioactivity. The research of Wu et al. (2022) has indicated that CS with different molecular weights could be obtained by degradation of Chondroitinase AC (RC-1204), CS with a low molecular weight has high absorption according to the Caco-2 cell monolayer model of intestinal barrier. Compared with CS, LMCS showed better antitumor activity. Therefore, the preparation of LMCS is of great significance for the further development and utilization of CS. Related methods of CS degradation have been established, but there are few studies on CS degradation mechanism. Meanwhile, the structural characteristics and biological activities of degradation products are reported in the literature. Thus, this study introduced the degradation method and mechanism of CS, and then discussed the main factors affecting CS degradation. Finally, the physicochemical properties, structure, and biological activity of LMCS were reviewed, which provides a reference for the preparation of LMCS with excellent biological activity.^[1]

Ovita develop the low molecular weight chondroitin sulfate in 2023 by using the enzyme developed by Ovita research team. The molecular weight distribution is from 500-3000 Dalton. It has the higher purity that the E-HPLC content is above 90%. The patent extraction technology control the extraction process in normal temperature not high temperature.

[1] Kangyu Wang, Liwei Qi, Laiyu Zhao, Jiqian Liu, Yujie Guo, Chunhui Zhang. Degradation of chondroitin sulfate: Mechanism of degradation, influence factors, structure-bioactivity relationship and application[J]. Carbohydrate Polymers. Volume 301, Part B,2023, 120361, ISSN 0144-8617.