Polysaccharides based nanomaterials for targeted anti-cancer drug delivery

Abstract

Polysaccharides, an important class of biological polymers, are effectively bioactive, nontoxic, hydrophilic, biodegradable and offer a wide diversity in structure and properties. These can be easily modified chemically and biochemically to enhance the bioadhesion with biological tissues, better stability and can improve bioavailability of drugs. Most of the chemotherapeutic drugs have a narrow therapeutic index, slow drug delivery systems and poor water solubility that usually proves toxic to human bodies. The inherent biocompatibility of these biopolymers have shown enhancement of solubility of some chemotherapeutic drugs which also leads to the preparation of nanomaterials for the delivery of antibiotics, anticancer, proteins, peptides and nucleic acids using several routes of administration. Recently, synthesis and research on polysaccharides based nanomaterials have gained enormous attention as one of the most applicable resources in nanomedicine area. This review article will provide a specific emphasis on polysaccharides as natural biomaterials for targeted anticancer drug delivery system.

Keywords:

• Anti-cancer
• chitosan
• dextran
• hyaluronic acid
• nanoparticle
• polysaccharide

Acknowledgements

D.D. and D.A. thank CSIR-New Delhi, India for their research fellowship, respectively.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Funding information

This research work was financially supported by CSIR-New Delhi (BSC 0108) IIIM communication no. IIIM/1896/2016