A review on anticancer applications of pullulan and pullulan derivative nanoparticles

In spite of the widespread study on anticancer delivery systems, various difficulties still persist on how to produce a suitable vehicle or carrier that can deliver anticancer agents to particular positions in the human body to aim cancerous tissues or cells and consequently treat cancer. Such complications might be related with little effectiveness produced by the high toxicity, unstable carrier and by the presence of numerous intracellular blockades like endosome entrapment, lysosomal enzymatic degradation, nuclear membrane, plasma membrane etc. Pullulan nanoparticles conjugated with various anticancer agents have been designed and developed to achieve receptor-mediated endocytosis in tumor tissues/cells and to deliver anticancer agents at the intracellular compartments. Within this area, this review article highlights the recent research on pullulan based nanoparticle formulations demonstrating its flexibility and relevance in biomaterials science to design anticancer approaches. Pullulan nanoparticles generate minimum side effects than systemic chemotherapy and attain sustained/prolonged delivery of an anticancer drug at cancer sites. Pullulan nanoparticles are highly beneficial because of their receptiveness toward exogenous as well as endogenous stimuli like bioresponsiveness, pH gradients, temperature, photoresponsiveness and so on. Here, we summarize the different pullulan derivative nanoparticles for tumor therapy and their delivery related systems, discuss the strategy approaches for cytotoxicity and review the research concerning pullulan nanoparticles reported in the literature.

Automated summary

The article discusses the progress of pullulan nanoparticles as a delivery system for anticancer drugs, including their receptor-mediated endocytosis in tumor tissues/cells and sustained delivery capabilities. It emphasizes the flexibility in design and relevance of pullulan nanoparticles in addressing anticancer challenges.