Investigation of dual-sensitive nanogels based on chitosan andN-isopropylacrylamide and its intelligent drug delivery of 10-hydroxycamptothecine

Advances in Stimuli-Responsive Chitosan Hydrogels for Drug Delivery Systems

Sustainable and controllable drug transport is one of the most efficient ways of disease treatment. Due to high biocompatibility, good biodegradability, and low costs, chitosan and its derivatives are widely used in biomedical fields. Specifically, chitosan hydrogel enables drugs to pass through biological barriers because of their abundant amino and hydroxyl groups that can interact with human tissues. Moreover, the multi-responsive nature (pH, temperature, ions strength, and magnetic field, etc.) of chitosan hydrogels makes precise drug release a possibility. Here, the synthesis methods, modification strategies, stimuli-responsive mechanisms of chitosan-based hydrogels, and their recent progress in drug delivery are summarized. Chitosan hydrogels that carry and release drugs through subcutaneous (dealing with wound dressing), oral (dealing with gastrointestinal tract), and facial (dealing with ophthalmic, ear, and brain) are reviewed. Finally, challenges toward clinic application and the future prospects of stimuli-responsive chitosan-based hydrogels are indicated.

Physically stimulus-responsive nanoparticles for therapy and diagnosis

Nanoparticles offer numerous advantages in various fields of science, particularly in medicine. Over recent years, the use of nanoparticles in disease diagnosis and treatments has increased dramatically by the development of stimuli-responsive nano-systems, which can respond to internal or external stimuli. In the last 10 years, many preclinical studies were performed on physically triggered nano-systems to develop and optimize stable, precise, and selective therapeutic or diagnostic agents. In this regard, the systems must meet the requirements of efficacy, toxicity, pharmacokinetics, and safety before clinical investigation. Several undesired aspects need to be addressed to successfully translate these physical stimuli-responsive nano-systems, as biomaterials, into clinical practice. These have to be commonly taken into account when developing physically triggered systems; thus, also applicable for nano-systems based on nanomaterials. This review focuses on physically triggered nano-systems (PTNSs), with diagnostic or therapeutic and theranostic applications. Several types of physically triggered nano-systems based on polymeric micelles and hydrogels, mesoporous silica, and magnets are reviewed and discussed in various aspects.

Recent advances of emerging green chitosan-based biomaterials with potential biomedical applications: A review

Chitosan is the most abundant natural biopolymer, after cellulose. It is mainly derived from the fungi, shrimp's shells, and exoskeleton of crustaceans, through the deacetylation of chitin. The ecological sustainability associated with its exercise and the flexibility of chitosan owing to its active functional hydroxyl and amino groups makes it a promising candidate for a wide range of applications through a variety of modifications. The biodegradability and biocompatibility of chitosan and its derivatives along with their various chemical functionalities make them promising carriers for pharmaceutical, nutritional, medicinal, environmental, agriculture, drug delivery, and biotechnology applications. The present work aims to provide a detailed and organized description of modified chitosan and its derivatives-based nanomaterials for biomedical applications. We addressed the biological and physicochemical benefits of nanocomposite materials made up of chitosan and its derivatives in various formulations, including improved physicochemical stability and cells/tissue interaction, controlled drug release, and increased bioavailability and efficacy in clinical practice. Moreover, several modification techniques and their effective utilization are also reviewed and collected in this review.

Advances in thermosensitive polymer-grafted platforms for biomedical applications

Studies on "smart" polymeric material performing environmental stimuli such as temperature, pH, magnetic field, enzyme and photo-sensation have recently paid much attention to practical applications. Among of them, thermo-responsive grafted copolymers, amphiphilic steroids as well as polyester molecules have been utilized in the fabrication of several multifunctional platforms. Indeed, they performed a strikingly functional improvement comparing to some original materials and exhibited a holistic approach for biomedical applications. In case of drug delivery systems (DDS), there has been some successful proof of thermal-responsive grafted platforms on clinical trials such as ThermoDox®, BIND-014, Cynviloq IG-001, Genexol-PM, etc. This review would detail the recent progress and highlights of some temperature-responsive polymer-grafted nanomaterials or hydrogels in the 'smart' DDS that covered from synthetic polymers to nature-driven biomaterials and novel generations of some amphiphilic functional platforms. These approaches could produce several types of smart biomaterials for human health care in future.

Application of Polymerization Activator in the Course of Synthesis of N-Isopropylacrylamide Derivatives for Thermally Triggered Release of Naproxen Sodium

Poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (polyNIPA) is an extensively studied polymer in the field of controlled drug delivery. PolyNIPA contains carbonyl and amide groups along a hydrophobic chain. In an aqueous environment, crosslinked polyNIPA forms a gel characterized by a reversible volume phase transition temperature (VPTT), in response to changes in the external environment excited by the temperature factor. NIPA-based polymers were synthesized by a surfactant-free precipitation polymerization (SFPP) method at a temperature of 70 °C using the free radical initiator potassium persulfate (KPS) and at 35 °C using redox initiator system KPS with N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED). The synthesized products were evaluated via dynamic light scattering (DLS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The chemical structure, molecular mass, and hydrodynamic diameter of obtained particles, as well as the effects of synthesized polymers on the release of the active substance, naproxen sodium (NS), from hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC)-based hydrogels were assessed. The use of the TEMED activator affected the particle size, as well as the release kinetics of NS. The insertion of TEMED into reactant mixtures may be applied to modify the release kinetics of NS from hydrogel preparations.

Recent advances in engineered chitosan-based nanogels for biomedical applications

Recent progress in the preparation and biomedical applications of engineered chitosan-based nanogels has been comprehensively reviewed.