Carboxymethyl-hexanoyl chitosan: A promising candidate for hydrophobic and hydrophilic drug delivery

Abstract

Biodegradable polymers are versatile materials that are used in a plethora of biomedical applications owing to their biocompatible nature, degradability, non-toxicity, and low cost. Among the available biodegradable polymers, chitosan is found highly utilized in various pharmaceutical applications. Chitosan is soluble in weak acidic medium, which hinders further utility in higher concentrations for biological applications. However, derivatives of chitosan could be explored for biomedical applications by considering their aqueous solubility followed by hydrophobic and hydrophilic drug encapsulation efficiency. One among them, carboxymethyl-hexanoyl chitosan (CHC) has demonstrated promising footprints in ocular drug delivery, cancer therapeutics, insulin delivery, tissue engineering, multimodal imaging, antimicrobial activity, and wound healing applications. Furthermore, biocompatibility, water retention and uptake ability, and biodegradability are attributed to the presence of both amino and carboxylic functional groups present in CHC. In the present review, we have given a consolidated overview of CHC-based systems used so far in biomedical applications including global trends and future perspective. We believe that the review will help to understand CHC-based systems and the need for further innovations in the biomedical sciences.