Marine Polysaccharides as a Versatile Biomass for the Construction of Nano Drug Delivery Systems

Abstract

Marine biomass is a treasure trove of materials. Marine polysaccharides have the characteristics of biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity, low cost, and abundance. An enormous variety of polysaccharides can be extracted from marine organisms such as algae, crustaceans, and microorganisms. The most studied marine polysaccharides include chitin, chitosan, alginates, hyaluronic acid, fucoidan, carrageenan, agarose, and Ulva. Marine polysaccharides have a wide range of applications in the field of biomedical materials, such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, wound dressings, and sensors. The drug delivery system (DDS) can comprehensively control the distribution of drugs in the organism in space, time, and dosage, thereby increasing the utilization efficiency of drugs, reducing costs, and reducing toxic side effects. The nano-drug delivery system (NDDS), due to its small size, can function at the subcellular level in vivo. The marine polysaccharide-based DDS combines the advantages of polysaccharide materials and nanotechnology, and is suitable as a carrier for different pharmaceutical preparations. This review summarizes the advantages and drawbacks of using marine polysaccharides to construct the NDDS and describes the preparation methods and modification strategies of marine polysaccharide-based nanocarriers.

Keywords: cancer therapy; drug delivery system; marine polysaccharide; nanocarrier.

Figure 1

Overview of polysaccharide derivatization.

Figure 2

Advantages and disadvantages of marine polysaccharides in the construction of DDSs.

Figure 3

(a) Schematic representation of the effect of CS molar mass on the particle size of PEC formed with semi-flexible polynion, adapted from [54]. (b) Common preparation methods of chitosan nanocarrier for DNA/siRNA delivery. Adapted from [55].

Figure 4

(a) Endosomal pH-activatable HA-bdendritic oligoglycerol (HA-dOG-PTX-PM) for active CD44-targeted paclitaxel (PTX) delivery in vivo; (b) in vivo fluorescence images of MCF-7 human breast tumor-bearing nude mice at different time points following injection of DIR-loaded HA-dOG-PTX-PM; (c) quantification of PTX accumulated in tumor and different organs using HPLC measurements. PTX uptake is expressed as injected dose per gram of tissue (%ID/g). Data are presented as mean ± SD (n = 3); (d) photographs of typical tumor blocks collected from different treatment groups of mice on day 29. Adapted from [59].

Figure 5

Preparation of Ca²⁺/(Alg/PEI/DNA) NPs and the schematic illustration of the in vivo transportation process of Ca²⁺/(Alg/PEI/DNA) NPs. Adapted from [62].

Figure 6

(a) Synthesis route of fucoidan-doxorubicin conjugate (FU-Dox NPs) developed by direct conjugation of Dox to the fucoidan backbone; (b) flow cytometry analysis of the cellular uptake of FU-Dox NPs after pretreatment with 1 μM P-selectin inhibitor, KF 38789, for MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468 cell lines. Adapted from [84].

Figure 7

(a) Route of the synthesis of P(DMAEMA) functionalized CS (PDCS); (b) Cell viability of PDCS/pDNA polyplexes at different N/P ratios in COS7, where polyethylenimine (PEI) (25 kDa), P(DMAEMA) and chitosan oligomers (CSO) polyplexes were used as controls. (mean ± SD, n = 4); (c) in vitro gene transfection efficiency of PDCS/pDNA polyplexes in comparison with those mediated by PEI (25 kDa) (control 1) at N/P ratio of 10, ExGen 500 (control 2) at N/P ratio of 6, P(DMAEMA) (control 3) at N/P ratio of 10, and CSO (control 4) at N/P ratio of 20 in COS7 cell line in the presence of serum. (mean ± SD, n = 3). Adapted from [90].