Title:Advances in Chitosan-based Drug Delivery Systems in Melanoma: A
Narrative Review
Volume: 31
Issue: 23
Author(s): Parisa Maleki Dana, Jamal Hallajzadeh*, Zatollah Asemi*, Mohammad Ali Mansournia and Bahman Yousefi
Affiliation:
- Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition, Research
Center for Evidence-based Health Management, Maragheh University of Medical Sciences,
Maragheh, Iran
- Research Center for Biochemistry and Nutrition in Metabolic Diseases, Institute for Basic Sciences,
Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, I.R. Iran
Keywords:
Chitosan, drug delivery, melanoma, chemotherapy, neutron capture therapy, skin cancer.
Abstract: Melanoma accounts for the minority of skin cancer cases. However, it has the
highest mortality rate among the subtypes of skin cancer. At the early stages of the disease,
patients show a good prognosis after the surgery, but developing metastases leads
to a remarkable drop in patients’ 5-year survival rate. Despite the advances made in the
therapeutic approaches to this disease, melanoma treatment is still facing several obstacles.
Systemic toxicity, water insolubility, instability, lack of proper biodistribution, inadequate
cellular penetration, and rapid clearance are some of the challenges that should be
addressed in the field of melanoma treatment. While various delivery systems have been
developed to circumvent these challenges, chitosan-based delivery platforms have indicated
significant success. Chitosan that is produced by the deacetylation of chitin can be formulated
into different materials (e.g., nanoparticle, film, and hydrogel) due to its characteristics.
Both in vitro and in vivo studies have reported that chitosan-based materials can
be used in drug delivery systems while offering a solution for the common problems in
this area, such as enhancing biodistribution and skin penetration as well as the sustained
release of the drugs. Herein, we reviewed the studies concerning the role of chitosan as a
drug delivery system in melanoma and discussed how these drug systems are used for delivering
chemotherapeutic drugs (e.g., doxorubicin and paclitaxel), genes (e.g., TRAIL),
and RNAs (e.g., miRNA199a and STAT3 siRNA) successfully. Furthermore, we take a
look into the role of chitosan-based nanoparticles in neutron capture therapy.