title: Advances in self-assembled chitosan nanomaterials for drug delivery.
abstract: Nanomaterials based on chitosan have emerged as promising carriers of therapeutic agents for drug delivery due to good biocompatibility, biodegradability, and low toxicity. Chitosan originated nanocarriers have been prepared by mini-emulsion, chemical or ionic gelation, coacervation/precipitation, and spray-drying methods. As alternatives to these traditional fabrication methods, self-assembled chitosan nanomaterials show significant advantages and have received growing scientific attention in recent years. Self-assembly is a spontaneous process by which organized structures with particular functions and properties could be obtained without additional complicated processing or modification steps. In this review, we focus on recent progress in the design, fabrication and physicochemical aspects of chitosan-based self-assembled nanomaterials. Their applications in drug delivery of different therapeutic agents are also discussed in details.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macau 999078, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macau 999078, China.
authors.forename: Shengpeng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macau 999078, China.
authors.forename: Yitao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macau 999078, China; State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. Electronic address: fewangxh@scut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaohui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA; Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA. Electronic address: qunwang@iastate.edu.
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macau 999078, China. Electronic address: MWChen@umac.mo.
authors.forename: Meiwan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D048271:Chitosan; D004337:Drug Carriers; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D050997:Nanomedicine; D049329:Nanostructures
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers; D048271:Chitosan
keywords: Chitosan; Drug delivery; Nanomaterials; Self-assembly