Marine Origin Polysaccharides in Drug Delivery Systems

• Published in: Marine drugs Vol. 14; no. 2; p. 34
• Main Authors: Cardoso, Matias J, Costa, Rui R, Mano, João F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.02.2016; MDPI
• Subjects: Algae; Alginic acid; Animals; Anti-inflammatory agents; Aquatic Organisms - metabolism; Biocompatibility; Biodegradability; Biodegradation; Biological properties; Biomaterials; Biomedical materials; Carrageenan; Chemical compounds; Chemistry, Pharmaceutical - methods; Chitosan; Construction materials; Controlled release; Costs; Delayed-Action Preparations; Drug Carriers - chemistry; Drug delivery; Drug Delivery Systems; Drug Design; Drugs; Exploitation; External stimuli; Fucoidan; Gene transfer; Gene Transfer Techniques; Humans; Hyaluronic acid; Hydrogels; Inflammation; Marine animals; Marine biology; marine excipients; Medicine; Oceans; Oceans and Seas; pH effects; Pharmacology; polysaccharide/drug conjugates; Polysaccharides; Polysaccharides - chemistry; Polysaccharides - isolation & purification; Polysaccharides - pharmacology; Properties; Raw materials; Regenerative medicine; Regenerative Medicine - methods; Review; Saccharides; Seaweed meal; polysaccharides; polysaccharide/drug conjugates; biomaterials; drug delivery; marine excipients
• ISSN: 1660-3397; 1660-3397
• DOI: 10.3390/md14020034

Oceans are a vast source of natural substances. In them, we find various compounds with wide biotechnological and biomedical applicabilities. The exploitation of the sea as a renewable source of biocompounds can have a positive impact on the development of new systems and devices for biomedical applications. Marine polysaccharides are among the most abundant materials in the seas, which contributes to a decrease of the extraction costs, besides their solubility behavior in aqueous solvents and extraction media, and their interaction with other biocompounds. Polysaccharides such as alginate, carrageenan and fucoidan can be extracted from algae, whereas chitosan and hyaluronan can be obtained from animal sources. Most marine polysaccharides have important biological properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, and anti-inflammatory activity, as well as adhesive and antimicrobial actions. Moreover, they can be modified in order to allow processing them into various shapes and sizes and may exhibit response dependence to external stimuli, such as pH and temperature. Due to these properties, these biomaterials have been studied as raw material for the construction of carrier devices for drugs, including particles, capsules and hydrogels. The devices are designed to achieve a controlled release of therapeutic agents in an attempt to fight against serious diseases, and to be used in advanced therapies, such as gene delivery or regenerative medicine.