Chitosan nanoparticles: a contribution to nanomedicine

Abstract

Chitosan is a cationic polysaccharide that finds diverse applications in medicine and pharmacy because of its excellent biological qualities: it is biocompatible, biodegradable, mucoadhesive and non‐toxic, and exhibits antimicrobial, antiviral and immunoadjuvant properties. It can be easily processed in diverse forms, such as films, threads, tablets, membranes and microparticles/nanoparticles, allowing the design of a variety of medical and pharmacological devices adaptable to end purposes. In particular, chitosan nanoparticles have become of great interest as polymeric platforms for the development of new pharmacological and therapeutic drug release systems with improved biodistribution and increased specificity and sensitivity, and reduced pharmacological toxicity. Chitosan nanoparticles have been found appropriate for non‐invasive routes of drug administration: oral, nasal, pulmonary and ocular routes. These applications are facilitated by the absorption‐enhancing effect of chitosan. Additionally, chitosan nanoparticles have been proposed as non‐viral vectors in gene therapy and have shown adjuvant effect in vaccines. This paper reviews the main procedures developed for preparing chitosan nanoparticles. Moreover, it illustrates the state of the art of chitosan nanoparticle applications in drug delivery. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry

Chitosan-propolis nanoparticle formulation demonstrates anti-bacterial activity against Enterococcus faecalis biofilms

“…Chitosan is reported to exhibit adhesiveness, biocompatibility and biodegradability and is widely used in biomedical and pharmaceutical applications [7–10]. It is used as a carrier to deliver non-viral genes and vaccines [11–13]. Chitosan nanoparticles are well known for their controlled drug release properties [4, 10, 14, 15] and are used for both in vitro and in vivo applications.…”

Chitosan-Polyoxometalate Nanocomposites: Synthesis, Characterization and Application as Antimicrobial Agents

“…CS is a linear polysaccharide constituted of b-(1,4)-D-glucosamine units, obtained from deacetylation of a naturally abundant biopolymer, chitin, which is the main constituent of the exoskeleton of crustaceans and cell wall of various fungi. Due to its availability, ease of preparation, excellent metal coordination [18] and particles stabilization capabilities [19,20], CS has found application in various research field such as biomedical sciences [21][22][23], food preservation [24,25] and water treatment [26][27][28][29][30][31]. CS has been reported to suit water disinfection applications when incorporated into membranes, sponges, or surface coatings of water storage systems [31].…”

The Optimum Conditions of Carboxymethyl Chitosan Synthesis on Drug Delivery Application and Its Release of Kinetics Study

“…An example of a natural polymer that can be used as a carrier matrix of the active substance is chitosan. Chitosan is usually preferred as carrier matrix because of its biocompatibility, biodegradability, and non-toxicity [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. …”