7 - Hyaluronic acid as potential carrier in biomedical and drug delivery applications

Abstract

Biodegradable polymer such as hyaluronic acid (HA), also named as hyaluronan, has extensively created a broad range of platform for biomedical and drug delivery applications, since HA provides an intrinsic biological activity, when used as biomaterial. HA is a naturally occurring nontoxic, biocompatible, biodegradable, and nonimmunogenic linear polysaccharide composed of unbranched nonsulfated glycosaminoglycan and has widely found as a major element in extracellular matrix of vertebrate organism in body fluids and tissues such as synovial fluid, the vitreous humor of the eye, dermis of the skin and hyaline cartilage and as well as also found in some bacteria. HA as an ideal biomaterial, with unique physicochemical properties and chemical modifications have aimed in enhancing, modulating, or controlling the therapeutic action of target molecule and have encouraged researchers in further exploring its utilization in biomedical (wound healing and as tumor markers for different cancer types) and drug delivery applications through internalization of HA by cells through cluster determinant 44 (CD44) receptors during its enzymatic degradation, enabling intracellular delivery of drugs via conjugation to HA or entrapment in HA particles and in targeting anticancer drugs to tumor cells overexpressing CD44 receptors. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the existing recent literature on the use of HA and its derivatives for further utilization in biomedical and drug delivery applications.