Hyaluronan drug delivery systems are promising for cancer therapy because of their selective attachment, enhanced uptake, and superior efficacy

The emergence of nanomedicine and nanotechnology has started to change the clinical approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Innovations include drug targeting and enhanced efficacy. A drug carrier that has many desired properties for nanomedicine is hyaluronan. It has high affinity for water, does not induce an immunological response for high molecular weight hyaluronan, and possesses functional groups for drug conjugation. Furthermore, many carcinomas naturally overexpress hyaluronan receptors. Therefore, hyaluronan is an attractive biopolymer for formulating drug delivery devices and has been chemically modified to make liposomes, nanoparticles, and pendant-chain systems. Hyaluronan is even being developed as an excipient to enhance the effectiveness of drugs. These results merit the commercialization of hyaluronan-based nanotechnology.