Polysaccharides: Shining Hope for Future Treatment of Exocrine Pancreatic Diseases─A Review

Exocrine pancreatic diseases, particularly pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer, remain formidable clinical challenges due to their high mortality and limited treatment options. Natural polysaccharides have abundant sources and possess a wide range of biological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antitumor effects. Thus, they have become promising therapeutic drugs. At present, the research on polysaccharides in exocrine pancreatic diseases lacks a comprehensive clarification of their multilevel regulatory mechanisms and structure-activity relationships. This review comprehensively summarizes the research progress of polysaccharides in exocrine pancreatic diseases for the first time, systematically analyzes the significant differences among various studies, and discusses their structure-activity relationships. Finally, it points out the deficiencies and the future research directions of polysaccharides in exocrine pancreatic diseases. It is necessary to further clarify the multiple mechanisms and improve the structure-activity relationships to provide important theoretical support for the development of new polysaccharide-based drugs for prevention and treatment of pancreatic diseases.