Chitosan Nanoparticles: A Promising System in Novel Drug Delivery

Abstract

The ability of nanoparticles to manipulate the molecules and their structures has revolutionized the conventional drug delivery system. The chitosan nanoparticles, because of their biodegradability, biocompatibility, better stability, low toxicity, simple and mild preparation methods, offer a valuable tool to novel drug delivery systems in the present scenario. Besides ionotropic gelation method, other methods such as microemulsion method, emulsification solvent diffusion method, polyelectrolyte complex method, emulsification cross-linking method, complex coacervation method and solvent evaporation method are also in use. The chitosan nanoparticles have also been reported to have key applications in parentral drug delivery, per-oral administration of drugs, in nonviral gene delivery, in vaccine delivery, in ocular drug delivery, in electrodeposition, in brain targeting drug delivery, in stability improvement, in mucosal drug delivery in controlled drug delivery of drugs, in tissue engineering and in the effective delivery of insulin. The present review describes origin and properties of chitosan and its nanoparticles along with the different methods of its preparation and the various areas of novel drug delivery where it has got its application.

Nanoparticle mediated brain targeted delivery of gallic acid:in vivobehavioral and biochemical studies for improved antioxidant and antidepressant-like activity

“…Chitosan offer many advantages for developing nanoparticles, including the ability to control the drug release and the formulation avoids of the use of hazardous organic solvents because of its solubility in aqueous acidic solution; being a linear polyamine, it contains a number of free amine groups that are readily available for crosslinking (Nagpal et al, 2010). Chitosan, is insoluble in water, and was solubilized in dilute acetic acid by the formation of acetate salt.…”

Genetic toxicology and preliminaryin vivostudies of nitric oxide donor tocopherol analogs as potential new class of antiatherogenic agents

“…Chitosan possesses other advantageous properties such as low production costs, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and nontoxicity that, along with its ability to enhance the penetration of macromolecules across the intestinal and nasal barriers, make it a suitable candidate for the design of mucosal vaccine formulations [68,69,[116][117][118][119]. Thus, slowed mucociliary transport as well as a transient increase in paracellular absorption should lead to an improved immunological response [115].…”

Characterization of Nanoparticles Produced by Chloroform Fraction of Kaempferia Rotunda Rhizome Loaded With Alginic Acid and Chitosan and Its Biological Activity Test

“…Some researchers have used it to cure serious diseases such as tumors, cancer, and HIV [10]. Nanoparticles used as drug carriers in the form of colloidal solid have a diameter of 10-1000 nm and are composed of synthetic polymers, natural, semisynthetic, or encapsulating drug molecules [11]. However, the polymers used for drug delivery should be easy to synthesize, in-expensive, biocompatible, biodegradable, non-immunogenic, non-toxic, and water soluble.…”