Fucoidans as nanoparticles: pharmaceutical and biomedical applications

Abstract

Fucoidans are multifunctional marine sulfated polysaccharides. They have gained much interest in the last few decades, due to promising and diverse biological activities. Additionally, nanobiotechnology is a relatively new scientific field, which has been developed to improve the quality of life, including medicine. Formulation of fucoidans in nanoparticles has taken different forms owing to their polyanionic and reducing nature. They are used in either plain preparations or as a capping agent for various metal nanoparticles or in combination with other cationic polymers as a drug carrier. These applications have resulted in increasing the medical efficiency of fucoidans, opening new era in drug delivery systems for anticancers and antibiotics and helping diagnosis of human diseases as well. The current chapter deals with different aspects regarding technologies used for fucoidans nanoparticles synthesis and utilization of such formulations specifically in the fields of nanomedicine.