Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) can be used as in gene therapies for e.g. cancers such as leukemia. However, the application of these is limited by a lack of efficient drug delivery. Therefore, in the presented study, chitosan was functionalized with arginine to form nanoparticles, loaded with siRNA, and their properties as siRNA vectors were investigated.
Hepatocellular carcinoma is a solid tumor that exhibits severe angiogenesis, cell cycle dysregulation, and evasion of apoptosis. Late diagnosis in a large proportion of patients is making the carcinomas inoperable, and various chemotherapeutic agents are used. Due to the numerous side effects of known chemotherapeutic agents, intensive research is performed on the use of natural products and their synthetic analogues. The authors of the presented study investigated the effect of carboxymethyl chitosan oligosaccharides on the growth of hepatocellular tumors in mice.
Glaucoma is a group of diseases of the eye with damaged optic nerve and retina in advanced stages, possibly leading to blindness. One of the causes is increased intraocular pressure. Here, we present two publications, which investigated the combination of chitosan and curcumin for treatment of glaucoma and cancer patients.
There are many potential applications of gold nanoparticles in medicine. Gold nanoparticles are already being used in diagnostics, as in pregnancy or HIV tests [1]. Research on the use as a contrast agent for the localization of cancer cells and as a drug delivery system for targeted release at site of action. The surface properties of gold are optimal for functionalization, e.g. with chitosan.
Biological barriers can limit the availability of a therapeutic agent in the target tissue. Drug delivery systems overcome these limitations to transport the correct dose of drug to its target site. The biopolymer chitosan has great potential for the development of innovative drug delivery systems. We present two articles that explore the treatment of cancer and noise-induced hearing loss with chitosan-based drug delivery systems.
Today´s topic is chitosan for drug delivery systems. In July and August 2016, 33 articles about chitosan combined with drug delivery systems were published. As might be expected, top publisher are China (13 articles), United States (5) and India (4). The articles investigated drug release by chitosan-based micro- or nanoparticles, hydrogels and nanocomposites. Thereby controlled release of cytostatics, proteins or peptides was mainly studied. (Source: www.gopubmed.org)
In January were 77 publications with chitosan topics published. In addition to China (26) and the United States (11), Egypt (6) is on the third place of nations with the most publications.
Starting in a new year in January 2011 92 articles about chitosan and its derivates were published. The top themes in the last month were evaluation studies, studies in tissues and about nanoparticle with 26, 25 and 21 publications.
In December 2010 116 articles dealing with chitosan or chitosan derivates were published. With 31 publications about chitosan China is the country which publicized the most ones followed by USA with 10 publications and India with 9. There chitosan nanoparticles, evaluation studies and pharmaceutical preparations were of most interest (37, 34 and 33 publications).
Besides interesting conferences like the ESB Meeting (European Conference on Biomaterials) from September 11 to 15 in Tampere, Finland many international articles about the application of chitosan appeared. As usual, some interesting papers will be presented.
