Virmani Tarun, Kumar Girish, Sharma Ashwani, Pathak Kamla, Akhtar Md Sayeed, Afzal Obaid, Altamimi Abdulmalik S A
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, MVN University, Haryana 121105, India.
Faculty of Pharmacy, Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Etawah 206001, India.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Jul 1;15(13):2928. doi: 10.3390/polym15132928.
The limitations associated with the conventional treatment of cancer have necessitated the design and development of novel drug delivery systems based mainly on nanotechnology. These novel drug delivery systems include various kinds of nanoparticles, such as polymeric nanoparticles, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, hydrogels, and polymeric micelles. Among the various kinds of novel drug delivery systems, chitosan-based nanoparticles have attracted the attention of researchers to treat cancer. Chitosan is a polycationic polymer generated from chitin with various characteristics such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity, and mucoadhesiveness, making it an ideal polymer to fabricate drug delivery systems. However, chitosan is poorly soluble in water and soluble in acidic aqueous solutions. Furthermore, owing to the presence of reactive amino groups, chitosan can be chemically modified to improve its physiochemical properties. Chitosan and its modified derivatives can be employed to fabricate nanoparticles, which are used most frequently in the pharmaceutical sector due to their possession of various characteristics such as nanosize, appropriate pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties, non-immunogenicity, improved stability, and improved drug loading capacity. Furthermore, it is capable of delivering nucleic acids, chemotherapeutic medicines, and bioactives using modified chitosan. Chitosan and its modified derivative-based nanoparticles can be targeted to specific cancer sites via active and passive mechanisms. Based on chitosan drug delivery systems, many anticancer drugs now have better effectiveness, potency, cytotoxicity, or biocompatibility. The characteristics of chitosan and its chemically tailored derivatives, as well as their use in cancer therapy, will be examined in this review.
传统癌症治疗方法存在的局限性促使人们设计和开发主要基于纳米技术的新型药物递送系统。这些新型药物递送系统包括各种纳米颗粒，如聚合物纳米颗粒、固体脂质纳米颗粒、纳米结构脂质载体、水凝胶和聚合物胶束。在各种新型药物递送系统中，基于壳聚糖的纳米颗粒已引起研究人员对癌症治疗的关注。壳聚糖是一种由几丁质生成的聚阳离子聚合物，具有生物相容性、生物可降解性、无毒性和粘膜粘附性等多种特性，使其成为制备药物递送系统的理想聚合物。然而，壳聚糖在水中的溶解度较差，可溶于酸性水溶液。此外，由于存在反应性氨基，壳聚糖可以进行化学修饰以改善其物理化学性质。壳聚糖及其修饰衍生物可用于制备纳米颗粒，由于它们具有纳米尺寸、适当的药代动力学和药效学性质、非免疫原性、提高的稳定性和提高的载药能力等多种特性，因此在制药领域最为常用。此外，它能够使用修饰的壳聚糖递送核酸、化疗药物和生物活性物质。基于壳聚糖的纳米颗粒及其修饰衍生物可通过主动和被动机制靶向特定的癌症部位。基于壳聚糖药物递送系统，现在许多抗癌药物具有更好的有效性、效力、细胞毒性或生物相容性。本文将综述壳聚糖及其化学定制衍生物的特性及其在癌症治疗中的应用。
