Chitosan‐based multifunctional nanomedicines and theranostics for targeted therapy of cancer

Abstract

Nanotechnology as an emerging field has established inevitable impacts on nano-biomedicine and treatment of formidable diseases, inflammations, and malignancies. In this regard, substantial advances in the design of systems for delivery of therapeutic agents have emerged magnificent and innovative pathways in biomedical applications. Chitosan (CS) is derived via deacetylation of chitin as the second most abundant polysaccharide. Owing to the unique properties of CS (e.g., biocompatibility, biodegradability, bioactivity, mucoadhesion, cationic nature and functional groups), it is an excellent candidate for diverse biomedical and pharmaceutical applications such as drug/gene delivery, transplantation of encapsulated cells, tissue engineering, wound healing, antimicrobial purposes, etc. In this review, we will document, discuss, and provide some key insights toward design and application of miscellaneous nanoplatforms based on CS. The CS-based nanosystems (NSs) can be employed as advanced drug delivery systems (DDSs) in large part due to their remarkable physicochemical and biological characteristics. The abundant functional groups of CS allow the facile functionalization in order to engineer multifunctional NSs, which can simultaneously incorporate therapeutic agents, molecular targeting, and diagnostic/imaging capabilities in particular against malignancies. These multimodal NSs can be literally translated into clinical applications such as targeted diagnosis and therapy of cancer because they offer minimal systemic toxicity and maximal cytotoxicity against cancer cells and tumors. The recent developments in the CS-based NSs functionalized with targeting and imaging agents prove CS as a versatile polymer in targeted imaging and therapy.

Nanodrug Delivery Systems for the Treatment of Ovarian Cancer

“…Mucin proteins (specifically MUC16) show prospective as biomarkers and antibody functionalized micelles to provide a broad range of prospects for OC therapy [32]. Nanomicelles are synthetic nanovehicles, with high potential loading capacity for chemotherapeutics designed for site-specific ovarian tumour targeting [33][34][35][36]. A size range of a micelle between 10-100 nm promotes significant permeability, endocytosis by OC cells and decreases nonselective targeting of normal cells [37].…”

“…Constituents of the prepared supramolecular structure of polymeric micelles are usually di-or tri-segment/block, or a stable copolymer (Figure 3). Poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) forms a barrier to nanomicelles, collapsing and displaying dissolution in an aqueous solvent [33,57]. The inner central component normally possesses a biodegradable polymer such as PEO/β-amino polyesters that can be utilised as an inner core to dissolve hydrophobic pharmaceutical drugs, thus shielding loaded constituents from the aqueous environment; increasing the bioavailability and in vivo efficacy [58][59][60].…”

“…The aggregates known as nanomicelles, comprises of several copolymers in a spherical arrangement [62,63]. When attachments to the polymer functional groups are anticipated, complexes including carboxylic (COO − ) conjugate bases and amine (NH) bases are joined as the sequence terminating clusters [33]. At low ratios in aqueous media, copolymers exist separately, however, once the molar concentration is increased, aggregation occurs [61].…”

Recent advances in the development of nanoparticles for multimodality imaging and therapy of cancer

“…Additionally, many NPs are being developed as therapeutic agents conjugated to chemotherapeutics, high‐energy radioisotopes, and/or various compounds capable of electromagnetic radiation in the forms of photothermal or photodynamic therapy (PTT or PDT). Similar to NPs used for diagnosis, different types of nanosystems such as organic and inorganic nanosystems have been employed for targeted cancer therapy …”

A new approach to developing diagnostics and therapeutics: Aggregation‐induced emission‐based fluorescence turn‐on

“…For the purpose of improving bioavailability and reducing nonspecific toxicity, many nanoscale drug delivery systems, including micelles, polymeric NPs, silica NPs, and others, have been widely developed to realize controlled drug release, targeted delivery, and enhanced cellular uptake. 140 However, traditional nanocarriers are always invisible, and the details of drug transportation after administration and subsequent intracellular trafficking are unknown, which imposes limitations on the development of the delivery system. Therefore, nano-drug delivery systems with simultaneous fluorescence imaging are urgently needed to monitor the encapsulated drug over the delivery process.…”