Biography
Biography: Kianoush Gholami
Abstract
Cancer is taken into account as one of the most prominent life-threatening diseases worldwide, with increasing incidence and mortality rates in the last decades. Reportedly, the number of new cancer cases per year is expected to rise up to 24 million until 2035. Beside unhealthy life style, specific bacterial infections including Helicobacter pylori, Salmonella Enteritidis, Salmonella Typhi and Chlamydia trachomatis could induce neoplastic changes in gastric, colon, gallbladder, cervical and ovarian cells, respectively. Use of anticancer agents is a routine modality, which could be applied alone or in combination with surgery and radiotherapy. However, severe side effects, poor solubility and nonspecific dissemination of chemical drugs are major challenges in cancer treatment that need to be overcome.
In recent years, nanotechnology has progressively raised as an attractive field to enhance efficacy and specificity of anticancer and antibacterial drugs. The present review considers advances in nanodelivery of drugs associated with cancer chemotherapy, with emphasis on chitosan.
Chitosan is one of the most versatile cationic, linear and natural polysaccharide polymers composed of β-(1–4)-linked D-glucosamine and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine units. In contrast to other nanoparticles, chitosan nanocomplexes (CSNCs) could be used in cancer diagnosis, imaging, photodynamic therapy and drug/nano-vaccine delivery. In this regard, water solubility, stability, pH sensitivity, targeting, drug loading and controlled drug release of CSNCs, which have been modified in thiolated, amphiphilic and quaternized derivatives, made these nanocarriers great options to coup with abnormal physiochemical cancer
microenvironment, such as acidic pH, redox environment and high temperature. To note, effective CSNC-delivery of anticancer drugs 5-Fluorouracil, Paclitaxel, Docetaxel, Methotrexate and Cisplatin has greatly improved cytotoxicity against glioblastoma, colon, gastric, breast, lung, liver and ovarian carcinoma cells. In addition, our previous experiences indicated that CSNCs could be successfully used for delivery of antibacterial agents like Sodium Ceftriaxone.
CSNCs are attractive nanocarriers with considerable biocompatibility and biodegradability, negligible toxicity and attractive structural changeability that could bridge the gap in conventional cancer chemotherapy and biomedical applications. Noteworthy, CSNCs have the potential to dispatch anticancer agents to cancer cells via targeted approach and evade issues challenged by drug delivery.
