Recent advances in drugs and prodrugs design of chitosan

The aim of this review is to outline the recent advances in chitosan molecular modeling, especially its usage as a prodrug or drug in a field of antibacterial, anticarcinogenic and antioxidant activity. Polymeric materials like peptides, polysaccharides and other natural products have recently attracted attention as biodegradabile drug carriers. They can optimize clinical drug application, minimize the undesirable drug properties and improve drug efficiency. They are used for the slow release of effective components as depot forms, to improve membrane permeability, solubility and site-specific targeting. Chitosan is such a prospective cationic polysaccharide which has shown number of functions in many fields, including bio medicinal, pharmaceutical, preservative, microbial and others. This article discusses the structure characteristics of chitosan, a number of factors such as degree of polymerization, level of deacetylation, types of quarternisation, installation of various hydrophilic substituents, metal complexation, and combination with other active agents. Biodegradable, non-toxic and non-allergenic nature of chitosan encourages its potential use as a carrier for drug delivery systems in all above mentioned targets. The use of chitosan prodrug conjugates is aimed at the site-specific transport to the target cells use, for example, a spacer tetrapeptide Gly-Phe-Leu-Gly, promotion of drug incorporation into cells via endocytosis, hybridization or synergism of two types of drugs or a drug with a bioactive carrier. The design of chitosan macromolecule prodrugs is also discussed.