Abstract
The ‘Back-to-nature’ concept has currently been adopted intensively in various industries, especially the pharmaceutical industry. In the past few decades, the overuse of synthetic chemicals has caused severe damage to the environment and ecosystem. One class of natural materials developed to substitute artificial chemicals in the pharmaceutical industries is the natural polymers, including cellulose and its derivatives. The development of nanocelluloses as nanocarriers in drug delivery systems has reached an advanced stage. Cellulose nanofiber (CNF), nanocrystal cellulose (NCC), and bacterial nanocellulose (BC) are the most common nanocellulose used as nanocarriers in drug delivery systems. Modification and functionalization using various processes and chemicals have been carried out to increase the adsorption and drug delivery performance of nanocellulose. Nanocellulose may be attached to the drug by physical interaction or chemical functionalization for covalent drug binding. Current development of nanocarrier formulations such as surfactant nanocellulose, ultra-lightweight porous materials, hydrogel, polyelectrolytes, and inorganic hybridizations has advanced to enable the construction of stimuli-responsive and specific recognition characteristics. Thus, an opportunity has emerged to develop a new generation of nanocellulose-based carriers that can modulate the drug conveyance for diverse drug characteristics. This review provides insights into selecting appropriate nanocellulose-based hybrid materials and the available modification routes to achieve satisfactory carrier performance and briefly discusses the essential criteria to achieve high-quality nanocellulose.
Highlights
Drug delivery technology (DDT) is a cutting-edge applied science for delivering drugs to specific targets
This study provides some additional information on the affinity of NC and the surfactant on the drug delivery system
Lightweight Porous Based Nanocellulose for Drug Delivery Lightweight porous materials have been classified as a 3-D solid class of material with several features such as high specific surface area, very low density (
Summary
Drug delivery technology (DDT) is a cutting-edge applied science for delivering drugs to specific targets. In contrast to NCC and CNF, BC provides unique characteristics such as high crystallinity of nanocellulose (84–88%) and polymerization grade, high water uptake capacity (exceeding 100 times of its weight), large surface area (high aspect proportion of fiber), outstanding tensile strength (Young modulus of 15–18 GPa), flexibility, foldability, moldability, mechanical stability, and high porosity [60]. High crystallinity of nanocellulose (84–88%) and polymerization grade, high water uptake capacity (exceeding 100 times of its weight), remarkable surface area (high aspect proportion of fiber), outstanding tensile strength (young modulus 15–18 Gpa), and flexibility, foldability, moldability, mechanical stability, highly biocompatible material, non-cytotoxic, un-genotoxic and high porosity. Based on the previous discussion, cellulose can be subjected to a mechanical, biological, and chemical treatment to produce three different NCs, i.e., nanocrystalline cellulose, cellulose nanofibrils, and biological cellulose They are classified based on various aspects such as morphology, particle size, crystallinity, nanocellulose structure, extraction techniques, and cellulose sources [56]. The mechanical stiffness of NCC can reach up to 7.7 GPa, which is higher than 302 stainless steel (3.88 GPa) [45] and kevlar KM2 fiber (1.28 Gpa) [45]
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