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Review: doxorubicin delivery systems based on chitosan for cancer therapy

2009; Oxford University Press; Volume: 61; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1211/jpp/61.02.0001

2042-7158

Mei Lin Tan, Peter Choong, Crispin R. Dass,

Polymer Surface Interaction Studies

This review sheds insight into an increasingly popular polymer that has been widely explored as a potential drug delivery system. The abundant, biodegradable and biocompatible polysaccharide chitosan, with many other favourable properties, has been favoured as a drug delivery system for the purposes of encapsulating and delivery of doxorubicin with reduced side-effects.Doxorubicin is frequently used as a frontline chemotherapeutic agent against a variety of cancers. It has largely been able to demonstrate anti-tumour effects, though there are major shortfalls of doxorubicin, which include serious side-effects such as cardiomyopathy and myelosuppression, and also an ever-present danger of extravasation during drug administration. In view of this, drug delivery systems are currently being explored as alternative methods of drug delivery in a bid to more effectively direct doxorubicin to the specific lesion site and reduce its systemic side-effects. Liposomes and dendrimers have been tested as potential carriers for doxorubicin; however they are not the focus of this review.Recent advancements in doxorubicin and chitosan technology have shown some preliminary though promising results for cancer therapy.