title: Recent developments in carbohydrate-decorated targeted drug/gene delivery.
abstract: Targeted delivery of a drug or gene to its site of action has clear therapeutic advantages by maximizing its therapeutic efficiency and minimizing its systemic toxicity. Generally, targeted drug or gene delivery is performed by loading a macromolecular carrier with an appropriate drug or gene, and by targeting the drug/gene carrier to specific cell or tissue with the help of specific targeting ligand. The emergence of glycobiology, glycotechnology, and glycomics and their continual adaptation by pharmaceutical scientists have opened exciting avenue of medicinal applications of carbohydrates. Among them, the biocompatibility and specific receptor recognition ability confer the ability of carbohydrates as potential targeting ligands for targeted drug and gene delivery applications. This review summarizes recent progress of carbohydrate-decorated targeted drug/gene delivery applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, USA.
authors.forename: Hailong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Xue-Long
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000737:chemistry*; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D004337:Drug Carriers; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology; D015316:Genetic Therapy / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D054794:Glycomics / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008024:Ligands; D008264:Macrophages / Q000378:metabolism; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D002241:Carbohydrates; D004337:Drug Carriers; D008024:Ligands; D011108:Polymers