Abstract

Pulmonary administration is an effective method for treating lung and other diseases. Drugs can be transported directly to the lung by the pulmonary drug delivery system (PDDS). PDDS has the advantages of maintained local drug concentration, reduced side effects, controllable drug release, promoted drug absorption, prolonged drug action time, and improved patient compliance. Polymers have been extensively utilized to prepare novel PDDS. Among these polymers, chitosan (CS) is a natural cationic polysaccharide which is rich in its source. It has many unique physicochemical properties, good biocompatibility, and satisfactory biodegradability. CS has been a popular biomaterial in pharmaceutics for decades and is widely used in drug delivery. CS contains many amino groups. The contained positive charges can interact strongly with the negatively charged mucosa membranes, thereby facilitating CS adsorption on the mucosal surface, avoiding clearance by the cilia, and improving the adhesion and penetration rate on the cell membrane. Moreover, studies have shown that CS could open cell tight junctions, which would promote drug transportation across the epithelial tissue. Thus, CS is an especially suitable material for PDDS. In this chapter, we will focus on the research progress and the applications of CS in PDDS. Many representative and advanced studies on CS-based PDDS are reviewed in detail.

Keywords: chitosan, pulmonary drug delivery, microsphere, nanoparticle, liposome, targeted delivery
