Polysaccharide Nanoparticles for Targeted Cancer Therapies.

Polysaccharide Nanoparticles for Targeted Cancer Therapies. Curr Drug Metab. 2018 May 11;: Authors: Peng P, Yang K, Tong G, Ma L Abstract Nanomedicines are novel drug delivery systems which can be devised to optimize the biodistribution, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of single or multiple drugs to improve the therapeutic index, reduce the systemic toxicity and increase the antitumor efficacy. Numerous classes of materials have been applied to construct nanomedicines, while the potential safety concern raised from the synthetic components during construction significantly impedes the clinical translation of nanomedicines. In virtue of their unique hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability and modifiability, natural biopolymers have been widely employed as either coating materials or backbones to realize targeted cancer therapy with desirable biosafety. Compared with other biopolymers such as proteins and nucleic acids, polysaccharides are the most commonly used biopolymers due to their abundance and facile derivatization. In this review, recent progress on polysaccharide-based nanoparticles which have been applied in gene delivery, drug delivery and theranostics for targeted cancer therapies is well discussed. PMID: 29749308 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Current Drug Metabolism - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Tags: Curr Drug Metab Source Type: research