Alginate-Based Micro- and Nanosystems for Targeted Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Alginates have been widely explored due to their salient advantages of hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, mucoadhesive features, bioavailability, environmentally-benign properties, and cost-effectiveness. They are applied for designing micro- and nanosystems for controlled and targeted drug delivery and cancer therapy as alginate biopolymers find usage in encapsulating anticancer drugs to improve their bioavailability, sustained release, pharmacokinetics, and bio-clearance. Notably, these nanomaterials can be applied for photothermal, photodynamic, and chemodynamic therapy of cancers/tumors. Future explorations ought to be conducted to find novel alginate-based (nano)systems for targeted cancer therapy using advanced drug delivery techniques with benefits of non-invasiveness, patient compliance, and convenience of drug administration. Thus, some critical parameters such as mucosal permeability, stability in the gastrointestinal tract environment, and drug solubility ought to be considered. In addition, the comprehensive clinical translational studies along with the optimization of synthesis techniques still need to be addressed. Herein, we present an overview of the current state of knowledge and recent developments pertaining to the applications of alginate-based micro- and nanosystems for targeted cancer therapy based on controlled drug delivery, photothermal therapy, and chemodynamic/photodynamic therapy approaches, focusing on important challenges and future directions.

Advanced Biomedical Applications of Multifunctional Natural and Synthetic Biomaterials

“…Alginate is an anionic biopolysaccharide formed by units of mannuronic acid and glucuronic acid, randomly arranged [145]. Alginate has been extensively used in tissue engineering, cancer therapy, wound care, controlled drug delivery and nanomedicines due to its biocompatibility [146][147][148][149][150][151][152].…”

Injectable Multifunctional Natural Polymer-Based Hydrogels for the Local Delivery of Therapeutic Agents

“…Alginates are linear polysaccharides widely used in biomedical applications, such as regenerative medicine, wound healing, and drug delivery. When used in combination with other biomaterials, for example nanoparticles or solid drugs, alginate-based hydrogels offer peculiar properties, advantageous for the controlled delivery of therapeutic agents to solid tumours, as recently reviewed by Iravani and Varma [33]. Many studies used alginate-based injectable systems for the controlled delivery of different therapeutic agents (Table 1, Figure 2).…”

Alginate-Based Biomaterials in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

“…In this context, chelating with divalent cations (Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ , etc.) is the easiest and most cost-effective way to fabricate alginate hydrogels from an aqueous solution under mild conditions [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ].…”

“…Alginate and its hydrogels have been widely employed in TE-RM due to its outstanding properties in terms of hygroscopicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity, flexibility, and chelating ability [ 24 , 28 , 29 ]. However, alginate alone has some drawbacks (high viscosity, low solubility, poor degradability, etc.)…”