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Updated: Dec 18, 2025
Generation of Alginate Microspheres for Biomedical Applications
Published on: August 12, 2012
Review on marine carbohydrate-based gold nanoparticles represented by alginate and chitosan for biomedical
Xiangyan Chen1, Xia Zhao1, Guixiang Wang2
1Key Laboratory of Marine Drugs, Ministry of Education, School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Glycoscience and Glycoengineering, Qingdao 266003, China; Laboratory for Marine Drugs and Bioproducts of Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266237, China.
Abstract:
Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been attracted considerable attention in cancer therapy, drug delivery and other applications due to their unique physical, chemical, and optical properties. Marine carbohydrates are important biological macromolecules that widely exist in marine algae and animals, such as alginate, carrageenan, porphyran, fucoidan, ulvan, agarose, and chitosan. Their excellent properties, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability and no irritation, make them widely used in biomedicine and nanomaterials fields. More importantly, they can be easily modified by functional groups, such as sulfation, acetylation, and carboxylation, to further extend their applications. The marine carbohydrates functionalized AuNPs can increase their biocompatibility and targeting in a green preparation method. Here, we review recent advances on marine carbohydrate-based AuNPs for cancer therapy, imaging, drug delivery and other biomedical fields. The topics of selective surface modification in different carbohydrates and further biomedical applications of AuNPs are also discussed.
