A Screening Approach to Assess the Impact of Various Commercial Sources of Crude Marine λ-Carrageenan on the Production of Oligosaccharides with Anti-heparanase and Anti-migratory Activities

Oligosaccharides derived from &lambda:-carrageenan (&lambda:-COs) are gaining interest in the cancer field. They have been recently reported to regulate heparanase (HPSE) activity, a protumor enzyme involved in cancer cell migration and invasion, making them very promising molecules for new therapeutic applications. However, one of the specific features of commercial &lambda:-carrageenan (&lambda:-CAR) is that they are heterogeneous mixtures of different CAR families, and are named according to the thickening-purpose final-product viscosity which does not reflect the real composition. Consequently, this can limit their use in a clinical applications. To address this issue, six commercial &lambda:-CARs were compared and differences in their physiochemical properties were analyzed and shown. Then, a H2O2-assisted depolymerization was applied to each commercial source, and number- and weight-averaged molar masses (Mn and Mw) and sulfation degree (DS) of the &lambda:-COs produced over time were determined. By adjusting the depolymerization time for each product, almost comparable &lambda:-CO formulations could be obtained in terms of molar masses and DS, which ranged within previously reported values suitable for antitumor properties. However, when the anti-HPSE activity of these new &lambda:-COs was screened, small changes that could not be attributed only to their small length or DS changes between them were found, suggesting a role of other features, such as differences in the initial mixture composition. Further structural MS and NMR analysis revealed qualitative and semi-quantitative differences between the molecular species, especially in the proportion of the anti-HPSE &lambda:-type, other CARs types and adjuvants, and it also showed that H2O2-based hydrolysis induced sugar degradation. Finally, when the effects of &lambda:-COs were assessed in an in vitro migration cell-based model, they seemed more related to the proportion of other CAR types in the formulation than to their &lambda:-type-dependent anti-HPSE activity.