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Chitosan Polymeric Micelles as Oral Delivery Platform of Hydrophobic Anticancer Drugs

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Chitosan for Biomaterials IV

Part of the book series: Advances in Polymer Science ((POLYMER,volume 288))

Abstract

Oral drug administration is the most common and preferred route of administration for both patients and doctors. However, some drugs, as the case of hydrophobic anticancer drugs, cannot be administered orally since they are hampered by the physiological and biological barriers of the gastrointestinal tract. Thus, the use of nanotechnology, particularly, the use of polymeric micelles has received great attention to overcome these limitations and achieve a better therapeutic outcome. Polymeric micelles have the ability to protect the drug from the harsh environment of the gastrointestinal tract, improving the stability and solubility of the drug for an enhanced oral bioavailability. Chitosan is a natural polymer with very interesting biological properties and has received growing interest to produce polymeric micelles to encapsulate hydrophobic drugs. The limitations of the oral administration and the mechanisms of the intestinal absorption, as well as the chitosan modifications to produce polymeric micelles are reviewed in this chapter. Finally, recently developed chitosan-based polymeric micelles were included in the review, with a focus on the delivery of anticancer drugs for oral chemotherapy.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financed by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior in the framework of the project “Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences” (UID/BIM/04293/2019). Andreia Almeida (SFRH/BD/118721/2016) acknowledges Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, for financial support.

Declaration of Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this work.

Credit Authorship Contribution Statement

Andreia Almeida: Conceptualization, Writing – original draft; Bruno Sarmento: Writing – review & editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. i3S – Institute for Research and Innovation in Health/INEB – Institute of Biomedical Engineering (INEB), University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Andreia Almeida & Bruno Sarmento

  2. ICBAS – Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Andreia Almeida

  3. CESPU, IINFACTS – Institute for Research and Advanced Training in Health Sciences and Technologies, Porto, Portugal

    Bruno Sarmento

Authors
  1. Andreia Almeida
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Correspondence to Bruno Sarmento .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (University), Kochi, India

    R. Jayakumar

  2. Department of Chemistry, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, Padur, Chennai, India

    M. Prabaharan

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Almeida, A., Sarmento, B. (2021). Chitosan Polymeric Micelles as Oral Delivery Platform of Hydrophobic Anticancer Drugs. In: Jayakumar, R., Prabaharan, M. (eds) Chitosan for Biomaterials IV. Advances in Polymer Science, vol 288. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/12_2021_94

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