Research Progress on Colon-Targeted Delivery of Traditional Chinese Medicine Polysaccharides for the Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis

Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. At present, the clinical treatment methods for UC still have problems such as insufficient targeting and easy to cause systemic side effects. Modern research shows that traditional Chinese medicine polysaccharides have unique anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and intestinal flora regulatory effects, and have shown good potential in the treatment of UC. However, their oral delivery is limited by bottleneck problems such as gastric acid degradation, enzymatic inactivation and low efficiency of lesion accumulation. This article analyzes the traditional Chinese medicine polysaccharides with preventive and therapeutic effects on UC and their mechanisms of action, and focuses on reviewing the current research progress of the traditional Chinese medicine polysaccharide colon-targeted drug delivery system used for UC treatment, highlighting its innovative value in enhancing drug stability, colon-specific release, and therapeutic effects. At the same time, it is pointed out that the current research faces challenges such as large heterogeneity of polysaccharide structure and insufficient clinical transformation. Prospects are also made for future directions such as structure-activity relationship analysis, development of multiple response systems, and individualized treatment, with the aim of providing theoretical references for the development of new targeted treatment strategies for UC.