Abstract

Cancer is among the most dreadful fatal diseases globally, and the efficacy of recent chemotherapeutic approaches is limited due to many related drawbacks. The major limitation associated with cancer chemotherapy is the poor aqueous solubility of most of the anticancer drugs, development of multidrug resistance, low bioavailability, small plasma half-life, and serious side effects to healthy tissues due to unspecific distribution of chemotherapeutic drugs. Advancement in nanoscience provides the means of specific and selective targeting of cancer cells. Chitosan, one of the naturally occurring biocompatible and mucoadhesive biopolymers that have been widely used in recent years for the effective delivery of anti-cancer drugs at the target site. Chitosan nanoparticles can encapsulate both hydrophilic and lipophilic chemotherapeutic drugs, proteins/peptides as well as different genetic materials like DNA, miRNA, siRNA, etc. in their polymeric matrix. Due to the unique polymeric matrix, these nanoparticles improve the solubility as well as the stability of encapsulated molecules in the biological system. Chitosan nanoparticles can improve the pharmacokinetic profile as well as the therapeutic efficacy of encapsulated drugs by controlling the release rates and targeted delivery process. These nanoparticles selectively deliver the encapsulated drugs to desired sites through passive or active targeting mechanisms thereby decrease the undesirable side-effects. The surface of chitosan nanoparticles can be modified with different ligands like antibodies, proteins, peptides, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids to achieve selective targeting. This review will provide a state-of-the-art perspective on recent development in chitosan-nanoparticles for smart anti-cancer therapeutic delivery.

摘要

癌症是全球范围内最可怕的致命疾病之一，由于许多相关的缺点，最近的化学治疗方法的疗效也受到限制。与癌症化学疗法相关的主要局限性是大多数抗癌药物的水溶性差，产生多药耐药性，生物利用度低，血浆半衰期短以及由于化学疗法药物的非特异性分布而对健康组织造成严重的副作用。纳米科学的进步提供了特异性和选择性靶向癌细胞的手段。壳聚糖是一种天然存在的生物相容性和粘膜粘附性生物聚合物，近年来已广泛用于在目标部位有效递送抗癌药物。壳聚糖纳米粒子可以封装亲水性和亲脂性化疗药物，蛋白质/肽以及其聚合基质中的不同遗传物质，例如DNA，miRNA，siRNA等。由于独特的聚合物基质，这些纳米粒子改善了生物系统中溶解度以及被包封分子的稳定性。壳聚糖纳米颗粒可通过控制释放速率和靶向递送过程来改善封装的药物的药代动力学以及治疗功效。这些纳米颗粒通过被动或主动靶向机制选择性地将包封的药物递送至所需的部位，从而减少了不良的副作用。壳聚糖纳米颗粒的表面可用不同的配体（如抗体，蛋白质，肽，多糖和核酸）修饰，以实现选择性靶向。