Biomedical applications of polysaccharide-based nanocomposites from fungal origin

Abstract Biological macromolecules are naturally occurring polymers and are visualized as a replacement for nonbiodegradable polymers by the researchers. These natural macromolecules are bestowed with excellent properties of biodegradability, biocompatibility, and low cost. Nowadays, these polymers are being exploited for engineering nanostructured hybrid materials and formulations that have unique applications in therapeutics as well as diagnostics. Among all biological macromolecules, polysaccharides are preferred due to their structural characteristics and self-assembling ability, which provide ease in making hierarchical nanostructures. Microbes, in particular fungi, are rich sources of a variety of polysaccharides, due to the presence of some extremely strong polysaccharides in their cell walls. These polysaccharides, in addition to providing physical strength to fungal cells, also mediate cellular communication and act as an adhesion scaffold for other cells. Some examples of fungal-derived polysaccharides that exhibited diverse biological activities are pullulan, yeast glucan, lentinan, scleroglucan, schizophyllan, and auricularian. The current chapter comprehensively describes the structural and synthesis details of fungal polysaccharides. Further, it also throws light into the fabrication of different nanomaterials using these fungal polysaccharides along with their biomedical applications.