Polysaccharides for the Delivery of Antitumor Drugs

Abstract

Among the several delivery materials available so far, polysaccharides represent very attractive molecules as they can undergo a wide range of chemical modifications, are biocompatible, biodegradable, and have low immunogenic properties. Thus, polysaccharides can contribute to significantly overcome the limitation in the use of many types of drugs, including anti-cancer drugs. The use of conventional anti-cancer drugs is hampered by their high toxicity, mostly depending on the indiscriminate targeting of both cancer and normal cells. Additionally, for nucleic acid based drugs (NABDs), an emerging class of drugs with potential anti-cancer value, the practical use is problematic. This mostly depends on their fast degradation in biological fluids and the difficulties to cross cell membranes. Thus, for both classes of drugs, the development of optimal delivery materials is crucial. Here we discuss the possibility of using different kinds of polysaccharides, such as chitosan, hyaluronic acid, dextran, and pullulan, as smart drug delivery materials. We first describe the main features of polysaccharides, then a general overview about the aspects ruling drug release mechanisms and the pharmacokinetic are reported. Finally, notable examples of polysaccharide-based delivery of conventional anti-cancer drugs and NABDs are reported. Whereas additional research is required, the promising results obtained so far, fully justify further efforts, both in terms of economic support and investigations in the field of polysaccharides as drug delivery materials.

Saccharide‐based nanocarriers for targeted therapeutic and diagnostic applications

“…alginate, agar and carrageenan). 8 Polysaccharides are highly appealing and promising biomaterials in nanomedicine, owing to their abundance in Nature, low processing costs, biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity and bioactivity. 9 Furthermore, polysaccharides have a diverse range of reactive functional groups (such as hydroxyl, amino and carboxylic acid groups) on their backbones that can readily be functionalized ( Fig.…”

Absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination (ADME) and toxicity profile of marine sulfated polysaccharides used in bionanotechnology

“…In another study, mauran-chitosan composite nanoparticles did not induce ROS generation and thus did not affect the polyunsaturated fatty acids of fatty acid membrane or initiate chain reaction posing threat to the tissue system (Raveendran et al, 2015). Mauran-chitosan nanoparticles loaded with 5-fluorouracil did not elicit any toxicity in mouse connective tissue fibroblast cells (L929) (Posocco et al, 2015). Stabilization by mauran is also reported to reduce the toxicity, augment biocompatibility and improve cellular uptake of quantum dots without any compromise in efficacy when employed as fluorescent marker in in vitro imaging studies (Raveendran et al, 2014).…”

“…(Silva et al, 2013;Popa et al, 2014;Posocco et al, 2015;Manivasagan et al, 2017;Majee et al, 2017a;Wells et al, 2017). Green algae have also attracted attention globally due to their pivotal role in marine and terrestrial ecosystem (Collen et al, 2011).…”

Pharmacological, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and diagnostic applications of sulfated polysaccharides from marine algae and bacteria

“…Types of glycosidic linkages between the monomeric units such as β-1,4 or β-1,3 provide a rigid backbone and α-1,2 or α-1,6 glycosidic linkages yield molecule with flexible regions (Ladrat et al, 2014). Polysaccharides have been reported to display an array of biological activities like antioxidant, anticoagulant, anticancer, antiviral, anti-allergic, antiadhesive, anti-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory activities (Posocco et al, 2015;Cardoso et al, 2016). Biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity and stimuliresponsiveness of marine polysaccharides support their utilization in the fabrication of stimuli-responsive "smart" or "intelligent" drug delivery systems.…”