Mannose: A Sweet Option in the Treatment of Cancer and Inflammation

Overview

Journal Front Pharmacol

Date 2022 Jun 1

PMID 35645798

Authors

Fang Nan

Yutong Sun

Hantian Liang

Jingyang Zhou

Xiao Ma

Dunfang Zhang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

As a natural sugar, mannose is a type of hexose that is abundant in many different types of fruits. Since mannose is rarely used for glycolysis in mammals, studies on the role of mannose have not attracted much attention. Glycosylation of specific proteins was thought to be the major function of mannose. Surprisingly, during the past few years, mannose was found to be effective in promoting immune tolerance and suppressing inflammatory diseases related to autoimmunity and allergy. Moreover importantly, mannose was also found to be efficient in suppressing tumors by suppressing glycolysis and enhancing chemotherapeutic agents. In this review, we summarize the recent studies of mannose on antitumor properties and anti-inflammatory characteristics. We emphasize that mannose could play a beneficial role in the treatment of a variety of diseases, including cancers and inflammatory diseases, and could be a novel therapeutic strategy that deserves continued evaluation.

Citing Articles

Mannose Inhibits NSCLC Growth and Inflammatory Microenvironment by Regulating Gut Microbiota and Targeting OGT/hnRNP R/JUN/IL-8 Axis.

Jin H, He H, Li J, Liu X, Cai Q, Shi J Int J Biol Sci. 2025; 21(4):1566-1584.

PMID: 39990658 PMC: 11844275. DOI: 10.7150/ijbs.107256.

Ketogenic diet suppresses colorectal cancer through the gut microbiome long chain fatty acid stearate.

Tsenkova M, Brauer M, Pozdeev V, Kasakin M, Busi S, Schmoetten M Nat Commun. 2025; 16(1):1792.

PMID: 39979287 PMC: 11842570. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56678-0.

Influence of Linker Molecules on the Biodistribution Characteristics of Tc-labeled Mannose Derivatives with an Isocyanide-Coordinated Group.

Yin G, Jiang Y, Feng J, Ruan Q, Wang Q, Han P ACS Pharmacol Transl Sci. 2025; 8(2):566-577.

PMID: 39974634 PMC: 11833735. DOI: 10.1021/acsptsci.4c00657.

Insights into the transcriptomic responses of silver-lipped pearl oysters Pinctada maxima exposed to a simulated large-scale seismic survey.

Dang C, Severn-Ellis A, Bayer P, Anderson N, Gholipour-Kanani H, Batley J BMC Genomics. 2024; 25(1):1188.

PMID: 39639203 PMC: 11622493. DOI: 10.1186/s12864-024-11091-7.

A Distinct Microglial Cell Population Expressing Both CD86 and CD206 Constitutes a Dominant Type and Executes Phagocytosis in Two Mouse Models of Retinal Degeneration.

Zhang Y, Park Y, Kim I Int J Mol Sci. 2023; 24(18).

PMID: 37762541 PMC: 10532260. DOI: 10.3390/ijms241814236.

References

Wculek S, Cueto F, Mujal A, Melero I, Krummel M, Sancho D . Dendritic cells in cancer immunology and immunotherapy. Nat Rev Immunol. 2019; 20(1):7-24. DOI: 10.1038/s41577-019-0210-z. View

DeRossi C, Bambino K, Morrison J, Sakarin I, Villacorta-Martin C, Zhang C . Mannose Phosphate Isomerase and Mannose Regulate Hepatic Stellate Cell Activation and Fibrosis in Zebrafish and Humans. Hepatology. 2019; 70(6):2107-2122. PMC: 6812593. DOI: 10.1002/hep.30677. View

Wei Z, Huang L, Cui L, Zhu X . Mannose: Good player and assister in pharmacotherapy. Biomed Pharmacother. 2020; 129:110420. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2020.110420. View

Tajan M, Vousden K . Dietary Approaches to Cancer Therapy. Cancer Cell. 2020; 37(6):767-785. DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2020.04.005. View

Bhattacharya B, Omar M, Soong R . The Warburg effect and drug resistance. Br J Pharmacol. 2016; 173(6):970-9. PMC: 4793921. DOI: 10.1111/bph.13422. View

Sha J, Cao D, Cui R, Xia L, Hua X, Lu Y . Mannose Impairs Lung Adenocarcinoma Growth and Enhances the Sensitivity of A549 Cells to Carboplatin. Cancer Manag Res. 2020; 12:11077-11083. PMC: 7648561. DOI: 10.2147/CMAR.S278673. View

Jaeken J, Peanne R . What is new in CDG?. J Inherit Metab Dis. 2017; 40(4):569-586. DOI: 10.1007/s10545-017-0050-6. View

de la Motte C, Hascall V, Drazba J, Bandyopadhyay S, Strong S . Mononuclear leukocytes bind to specific hyaluronan structures on colon mucosal smooth muscle cells treated with polyinosinic acid:polycytidylic acid: inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor is crucial to structure and function. Am J Pathol. 2003; 163(1):121-33. PMC: 1868154. DOI: 10.1016/s0002-9440(10)63636-x. View

Okabe S, Tanaka Y, Gotoh A . Effect of D-mannose on Philadelphia chromosome-positive leukemia cells. Cancer Biomark. 2022; 34(3):337-346. DOI: 10.3233/CBM-210141. View

10.

Thorens B, Mueckler M . Glucose transporters in the 21st Century. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2009; 298(2):E141-5. PMC: 2822486. DOI: 10.1152/ajpendo.00712.2009. View

11.

Zhang W, Cheng H, Gui Y, Zhan Q, Li S, Qiao W . Mannose Treatment: A Promising Novel Strategy to Suppress Inflammation. Front Immunol. 2021; 12:756920. PMC: 8502929. DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.756920. View

12.

Kanarek N, Petrova B, Sabatini D . Dietary modifications for enhanced cancer therapy. Nature. 2020; 579(7800):507-517. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2124-0. View

13.

Tammi R, Pasonen-Seppanen S, Kolehmainen E, Tammi M . Hyaluronan synthase induction and hyaluronan accumulation in mouse epidermis following skin injury. J Invest Dermatol. 2005; 124(5):898-905. DOI: 10.1111/j.0022-202X.2005.23697.x. View

14.

Ma X, Yang S, Zhang T, Wang S, Yang Q, Xiao Y . Bioresponsive immune-booster-based prodrug nanogel for cancer immunotherapy. Acta Pharm Sin B. 2022; 12(1):451-466. PMC: 8800001. DOI: 10.1016/j.apsb.2021.05.016. View

15.

Wu H, Zhang W, Mu W . Recent studies on the biological production of D-mannose. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2019; 103(21-22):8753-8761. DOI: 10.1007/s00253-019-10151-3. View

16.

Ferrannini E, Bokarewa M, Brembeck P, Baboota R, Hedjazifar S, Andersson K . Mannose is an insulin-regulated metabolite reflecting whole-body insulin sensitivity in man. Metabolism. 2019; 102:153974. DOI: 10.1016/j.metabol.2019.153974. View

17.

de la Motte C, Hascall V, Calabro A, Yen-Lieberman B, Strong S . Mononuclear leukocytes preferentially bind via CD44 to hyaluronan on human intestinal mucosal smooth muscle cells after virus infection or treatment with poly(I.C). J Biol Chem. 1999; 274(43):30747-55. DOI: 10.1074/jbc.274.43.30747. View

18.

Liu F, Xu X, Li C, Li C, Li Y, Yin S . Mannose synergizes with chemoradiotherapy to cure cancer via metabolically targeting HIF-1 in a novel triple-negative glioblastoma mouse model. Clin Transl Med. 2020; 10(7):e226. PMC: 7648968. DOI: 10.1002/ctm2.226. View

19.

de Lonlay P, Seta N . The clinical spectrum of phosphomannose isomerase deficiency, with an evaluation of mannose treatment for CDG-Ib. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2008; 1792(9):841-3. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbadis.2008.11.012. View

20.

Wang Y, Xie S, He B . Mannose shows antitumour properties against lung cancer via inhibiting proliferation, promoting cisplatin‑mediated apoptosis and reducing metastasis. Mol Med Rep. 2020; 22(4):2957-2965. PMC: 7453596. DOI: 10.3892/mmr.2020.11354. View