title: Recent strategies to develop polysaccharide-based nanomaterials for biomedical applications.
abstract: Polysaccharides are abundant in nature, renewable, nontoxic, and intrinsically biodegradable. They possess a high level of functional groups including hydroxyl, amino, and carboxylic acid groups. These functional groups can be utilized for further modification of polysaccharides with small molecules, polymers, and crosslinkers; the modified polysaccharides have been used as effective building blocks in fabricating novel biomaterials for various biomedical applications such as drug delivery carriers, cell-encapsulating biomaterials, and tissue engineering scaffolds. This review describes recent strategies to modify polysaccharides for the development of polysaccharide-based biomaterials; typically self-assembled micelles, crosslinked microgels/nanogels, three-dimensional hydrogels, and fibrous meshes. In addition, the outlook is briefly discussed on the important aspects for the current and future development of polysaccharide-based biomaterials, particularly tumor-targeting intracellular drug delivery nanocarriers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Yifen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Jung Kwon
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Oh
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D008823:Micelles; D000080385:Nanogels; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D011094:Polyethyleneimine / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D020100:Hydrogels; D008823:Micelles; D000080385:Nanogels; D011134:Polysaccharides; C413692:polyethylene glycol polyethyleneimine nanogel; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols; D011094:Polyethyleneimine
keywords: biomedical applications; hydrogels; micelles; nanogels; polysaccharides