Chitosan-Based Micro and Nanoparticles: A Promising System for Drug Delivery

Chitosan (CS) as a natural polymer has been fabulated into a number of formulations such as films, hydrogels and particles based on its excellent properties such as biodegradable, biocompatible, bioadhesive, permeation-enhancement, antibiotic, antitumor properties etc., apart from those properties chitosan microparticles (CSMP) found a lot of applications in pharmaceutics such as vaccine delivery, mucosal delivery and gene delivery, etc. Down to the nanoscale, chitosan nanoparticles (CSNP) have more attractive properties more than that of CSMP, which further widen the applications of chitosan particles in biomedicine and biopharmaceutics. Considerable research efforts have been directed towards developing of safe and efficient chitosan-based particulate drug delivery systems. The present review aims at providing a major outline related to new findings on the pharmaceutical applications of chitosan-based micro/nanoparticulate drug delivery systems published over the past decade. CSNP have gained more attention as drug delivery carriers because of their better stability, low toxicity, simple and mild preparation method and providing versatile routes of administration. Their sub-micron size not only suitable for parenteral application, but also applicable for mucosal routes of administration, i.e., oral, nasal, and ocular mucosa, which are non-invasive routes, drug loading, release characteristics and applications are covered in this review. This review emphasizes recent research on methods of CS preparation, applications and different aspects of chitosan based micro and nanoparticles in drug delivery.