Hyaluronan: Pharmaceutical Characterization and Drug Delivery

Abstract

Hyaluronic acid (HA), is a polyanionic polysaccharide that consists of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and beta-glucoronic acid. It is most frequently referred to as hyaluronan because it exists in vivo as a polyanion and not in the protonated acid form. HA is distributed widely in vertebrates and presents as a component of the cell coat of many strains of bacteria. Initially the main functions of HA were believed to be mechanical as it has a protective, structure stabilizing and shock-absorbing role in the body. However, more recently the role of HA in the mediation of physiological functions via interaction with binding proteins and cell surface receptors including morphogenesis, regeneration, wound healing, and tumor invasion, as well as in the dynamic regulation of such interactions on cell signaling and behavior has been documented. The unique viscoelastic nature of hyaluronan along with its biocompatibility and nonimmunogenicity has led to its use in a number of cosmetic, medical, and pharmaceutical applications. More recently, HA has been investigated as a drug delivery agent for ophthalmic, nasal, pulmonary, parenteral, and dermal routes. The purpose of our review is to describe the physical, chemical, and biological properties of native HA together with how it can be produced and assayed along with a detailed analysis of its medical and pharmaceutical applications.

Engineered sodium hyaluronate respirable dry powders for pulmonary drug delivery

“…The disaccharides are linked by β 1,3 bonds to form the hyaluronic acid chains (Lapcík L Jr and et al, 1998). In vivo, hyaluronate exists as a polyanion rather than its protonated form, hyaluronic acid, although the terms are often used synonymously in the literature (Liao et al, 2008). The use of high molecular weight sodium hyaluronate is approved in several pharmaceutical products for topical application and injection and as a functional component of some nebuliser solutions.…”

“…macrophages or lung cancer (Liao et al, 2008). The development of inhaled formulations has been limited by difficulty in formulating and manufacturing sodium hyaluronate as a powder for inhalation, therefore this study aimed to engineer a flowable, highly respirable powder.…”

Crude polysaccharide from an anti-UVB cell clone of Bupleurum scorzonerifolium protect HaCaT cells against UVB-induced oxidative stress

“…Polysaccharides as important natural compound derived mainly from plant sources, become more interesting because of their essential role in many molecular processes. The mechanisms of pharmaceutical effects of bioactive polysaccharides on diseases have been extensively studied and more and more kinds of natural polysaccharides with different curative effects have been tested and even applied in therapies (Liao et al 2005;Singla and Chawla 2001). Although used in various diseases, it has been suspected that most curative effects of polysaccharides were based on their antioxidant activity.…”

Conditioning and Scaffolding of Chondrocytes: Smart Steps Towards Osteoarthritis Gene Therapy

“…However, the clinical development program for DMOADs is complicated due to the slowly progressive nature of OA. Intra-articular injections of corticosteroids (Habib et al, 2010) or hyaluronic acid (Liao et al, 2005) exert pain reducing effects that last for a couple of weeks but do not significantly improve the physical function of the joint. Nutritional supplements such as chondrotin sulphate and glucosamine are asymptomatic slow-acting safe drugs for the management of OA, but their efficacy in OA is questionable (Dougados, 2006) just like avocado, soybean, unsaponifiables and Vitamin E (Clouet et al, 2009).…”