Carbohydrate-based drugs are carbohydrate compounds and their derivatives derived from animals, plants, microorganisms and marine organisms with biological activities. It is a kind of important drug. The diversity of carbohydrate structure determines the diversity of biological activities of carbohydrate-based drugs.

 The first class of carbohydrate-based drugs are animal-derived polysaccharides, such as heparin, low molecular weight heparin, hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate and other mucopolysaccharides. They arepolysaccharide drugs developed and widely used in the clinic. These drugs can participate in, affect and regulate the metabolism and physiological function of the human body.

 The second class of carbohydrate-based drugs is polysaccharides, oligosaccharides and glycosylated nature products from plants and microorganisms, which exhibit immunomodulatory and antitumor activities. As we all know, although chemotherapy drugs are the most commonly used drugs in the treatment of malignant tumors, they have apparent toxic and side effects while killing tumor cells. These kinds of carbohydrate-based drugs generally have no obvious toxic and side effects, so more and more polysaccharide drugs are used in tumor treatment or adjuvant therapy.

 The third class of carbohydrate-based drugs is carbohydrate derivatives, such as sulfated seaweed polysaccharides, low molecular weight heparin and ultra-low molecular weight heparin, saponin, digoxin, erythromycin.

 The fourth class of carbohydrate-based drugs is glycoprotein drugs. Glycosylation plays an important role in increasing protein stability and improving drug bioavailability. Glycoprotein drugs are widely used in the clinic, such as interferon, interleukin, erythropoietin.