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Review
. 2016 Feb 5;14(2):34.
doi: 10.3390/md14020034.

Marine Origin Polysaccharides in Drug Delivery Systems

Matias J Cardoso  1   2 , Rui R Costa  3   4 , João F Mano  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Marine Origin Polysaccharides in Drug Delivery Systems

Matias J Cardoso et al. Mar Drugs. .

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.

Keywords: biomaterials; drug delivery; marine excipients; polysaccharide/drug conjugates; polysaccharides.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Interrelations of marine origin polysaccharides in drug delivery systems for advances therapies and applications.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Marine origin polysaccharides categorized by electrostatic nature and carboxylated/sulfated structure.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Optical microscope images of alginate microspheres before (A) and after (B) ultrasound exposure. Reprinted with permission from [51], Copyright © 2014 American Chemical Society.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) micrograph of chitosan/carrageenan nanoparticles (A). Ovalbumin release profile from chitosan-carrageenan nanoparticles (B). Adapted with permission from [108], Copyright © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Figure 5
Figure 5
TEM image of chitosan/fucoidan nanoparticles (A). Gentamicin release kinetics from chitosan/fucoidan particles (B). Adapted with permission from [119], Copyright © 2014 distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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