Chitosan nanoparticles as practical biomedical tools in cancer therapy

Abstract

Cancer is the leading cause of death throughout the world, next to cardiovascular diseases. Although various conventional modalities have been applied for cancer therapy, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, their considerable drawbacks have limited their applicability and cancer eradication. Therefore, there is a fundamental requirement for the fabrication and development of breakthrough technologies in cancer therapy. The chitosan (CS) nanoparticle-based nanotechnology is one of the most prominent tools for the treatment of cancer, which has received deep attention from researchers and clinicians. The CS nanoparticles have potential physicochemical properties, such as stability and surface functional groups, which improve their practicality in the development of novel drug delivery systems (DDSs) against cancer. Moreover, these nanoparticles have various biomedical properties that have made them potent candidates for cancer treatment, including biodegradability, mucoadhesivity, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, antioxidant activity, immunomodulatory function, hemostatic and blood clotting, and macrophage activation. Moreover, these nanomaterials can be applied to the passive and active DDSs against cancer. Totally, the CS-based DDSs would be remarkable tools for cancer therapy.