Chondroitin Sulfate: Emerging biomaterial for biopharmaceutical purpose and tissue engineering

Chondroitin Sulfate (CS) is an anionic hetero polysaccharide possessing anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antitumor, anticoagulant and antithrombogenic activities. It is biodegradable and biocompatible in nature. Further, it inherits the ability of active and subcellular targeting due to its affinity for CD 44 receptors and glycosylation enzymes, which are overexpressed on the surface of tumor cells and intracellular organelles respectively. CS is known to degrade in presence of physiological stimuli, the hyaluronidase (HAase) enzyme and reactive oxygen species (ROS), assisting in site specific drug release. Due to these properties, it serve as a promising biomaterial for drug delivery and tissue engineering. In this review, the fundamental theory of CS, CS-based nanocarriers for the delivery of biopharmaceuticals and stimuli sensitive delivery systems such as HAase and ROS responsive nanocarriers for tumor targeted delivery are discussed critically. In addition, the manuscript describes the application of CS-based tissue constructs in tissue engineering and wound healing.