Chitosan-coated lipid nanocarriers for therapeutic applications

This article reports the efforts made over the last two decades by our group regarding the design of chitosan-coated lipid nanostructures as well as their potential for two different applications: i) as transmucosal delivery vehicles for complex macromolecules and ii) as carriers for anticancer drug delivery. The nanostructures described here share a core-coating structure, in which the core consists of a liquid (Miglyol 812) or a solid (tripalmitin) lipid surrounded by a chitosan coating. Both polymer-coated nanostructures have displayed outstanding properties in relation to the favored transport of large complex molecules (e.g. peptides and vaccines) across the nasal and intestinal barriers, as well as to facilitate the intracellular delivery of anticancer drugs into tumor cells.