Marine Origin Polysaccharides in Drug Delivery Systems.
Mar Drugs
; 14(2)2016 Feb 05.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-26861358
ABSTRACT
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.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Polissacarídeos
/
Sistemas de Liberação de Medicamentos
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Organismos Aquáticos
Limite:
Animals
/
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Mar Drugs
Assunto da revista:
BIOLOGIA
/
FARMACOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2016
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Portugal