Affiliations 

  • 1 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran
  • 2 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre
  • 3 Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  • 4 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
  • 5 Department of Aquatic Animal Health & Diseases, Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
  • 6 Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran
  • 7 Department of Food Hygiene and Quality Control, Division of Epidemiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
  • 8 Department of Urological Sciences and Vancouver Prostate Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6H3Z6, Canada
  • 9 Centre for Molecular Medicine and Innovative Therapeutics, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia; School of Engineering, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia
  • 10 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey; ERNAM-Nanotechnology Research and Application Center, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Türkiye
  • 11 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
  • 12 Department Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran; The Health of Plant and Livestock Products Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran. Electronic address: dr.mohsenrashidi@yahoo.com
  • 13 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: Parham.rahmanian@gmail.com
  • 14 Department of Food Hygiene and Quality Control, Division of Epidemiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: kiavash.hushmandi@gmail.com
  • 15 School of Pharmacy, Xianning Medical College, Hubei University of Science and Technology, Xianning, 437100, China. Electronic address: yuwei0805@163.com
Int J Biol Macromol, 2023 Jul 01;242(Pt 3):124935.
PMID: 37230442 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.124935

Abstract

The field of nanomedicine has provided a fresh approach to cancer treatment by addressing the limitations of current therapies and offering new perspectives on enhancing patients' prognoses and chances of survival. Chitosan (CS) is isolated from chitin that has been extensively utilized for surface modification and coating of nanocarriers to improve their biocompatibility, cytotoxicity against tumor cells, and stability. HCC is a prevalent kind of liver tumor that cannot be adequately treated with surgical resection in its advanced stages. Furthermore, the development of resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy has caused treatment failure. The targeted delivery of drugs and genes can be mediated by nanostructures in treatment of HCC. The current review focuses on the function of CS-based nanostructures in HCC therapy and discusses the newest advances of nanoparticle-mediated treatment of HCC. Nanostructures based on CS have the capacity to escalate the pharmacokinetic profile of both natural and synthetic drugs, thus improving the effectiveness of HCC therapy. Some experiments have displayed that CS nanoparticles can be deployed to co-deliver drugs to disrupt tumorigenesis in a synergistic way. Moreover, the cationic nature of CS makes it a favorable nanocarrier for delivery of genes and plasmids. The use of CS-based nanostructures can be harnessed for phototherapy. Additionally, the incur poration of ligands including arginylglycylaspartic acid (RGD) into CS can elevate the targeted delivery of drugs to HCC cells. Interestingly, smart CS-based nanostructures, including ROS- and pH-sensitive nanoparticles, have been designed to provide cargo release at the tumor site and enhance the potential for HCC suppression.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.