| Nanotechnology as an emerging field has established inevitable
impacts on nano-biomedicine and treatment of formidable diseases,
inflammations, and malignancies. In this regard, substantial
advances in the design of systems for delivery of therapeutic agents
have emerged magnificent and innovative pathways in biomedical
applications. Chitosan (CS) is derived via deacetylation of chitin as
the second most abundant polysaccharide. Owing to the unique
properties of CS (e.g., biocompatibility, biodegradability, bioactivity,
mucoadhesion, cationic nature and functional groups), it
is an excellent candidate for diverse biomedical and pharmaceutical
applications such as drug/gene delivery, transplantation of
encapsulated cells, tissue engineering, wound healing, antimicrobial
purposes, etc. In this review, we will document, discuss, and provide
some key insights toward design and application of miscellaneous
nanoplatforms based on CS. The CS-based nanosystems (NSs)
can be employed as advanced drug delivery systems (DDSs) in
large part due to their remarkable physicochemical and biological
characteristics. The abundant functional groups of CS allow the
facile functionalization in order to engineer multifunctional NSs,
which can simultaneously incorporate therapeutic agents, molecular
targeting, and diagnostic/imaging capabilities in particular against
malignancies. These multimodal NSs can be literally translated into
clinical applications such as targeted diagnosis and therapy of cancer
because they offer minimal systemic toxicity and maximal cytotoxicity
against cancer cells and tumors. The recent developments
in the CS-based NSs functionalized with targeting and imaging
agents prove CS as a versatile polymer in targeted imaging and
therapy. |