Environmental stimuli-sensitive chitosan nanocarriers in therapeutics

Abstract

Environmental stimuli-sensitive chitosan nanocarriers (SSCNs) have attracted attention in the area of cancer chemotherapy. Chitosan is the most commonly used natural polymer obtained by the deacetylation of chitin. It is a polymer suitable for therapeutic applications owing to its distinctive characteristics including biodegradability, biocompatibility, and nontoxicity. Chitosan consists of amino and hydroxyl groups that can be used chemically to provide stimuli-sensitive characteristics that have promising applications in the field of nanobiomedicines. It is employed for the fabrication of several nanocarriers such as liposomes, nanoparticles, dendrimers, niosomes, micelles, and microparticles. The versatile features of chitosan, such as mucoadhesion, better transfection, in situ gelation, enhancement of absorption, and permeation, have made it a promising candidate for drug delivery. This chapter discusses different types of stimulus-sensitive chitosan nanocarriers (temperature, pH, ultrasound, redox, photo, and magnetic field) along with drug release mechanisms. This strategy is used to deliver therapeutic agent(s) at the target site, which enhances the therapeutic effects with less side effects related to the drug(s). Environmental SSCNs could be a potential approach to future clinical applications