Carboxymethyl Chitosan-Based Derivatives in Diagnosis and Targeting

Carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC), a derivative of chitosan, has turned into one of the most favorable biopolymers for the development of targeted drug delivery systems, earlier diagnosis of disease, tissue engineering, wound healing materials, regenerative medicine, and many other formulations for biomedical applications in the past few decades. CMC has shown many desired characteristics such as pH sensitivity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, enhanced aqueous solubility, and numerous other exceptional physicochemical and biological properties. More impressively, CMC-based derivatives can load hydrophobic drugs and other functional materials more effectively for tumor-targeted drug delivery as well as bioimaging and diagnosis of various diseases. This chapter gives a comprehensive review of the recent development of CMC-based formulations as targeted drug delivery systems, diagnosing and imaging agents.