Mojan Radmehr
Department of Pharmaceutic
Faculty of Pharmacy
Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS)
Tehran, Iran
Abstract:
Heparin can be used for anticoagulant therapy, Atrial fibrillation, DVT, DIC, Venous thromboembolism. Heparin is not absorbed from the gut, due to high negative charge and large size. The disadvantages of parenteral use are low patient compliance, infection due to repeated injection.
The oral route remains the safest, most convenient and has a great patient compliance. Several attempts to develop oral heparin formulations have been reported, for example: heparin complex with spermine and lysine salts, or O/W emulsions, liposomes and PLGA and SNAC. Chitosan, has been extensively studied for this purpose. Chitosan solubility is largely dependent on pH in a manner that it is very soluble in acidic media and is insoluble in pH above 6. So for overcome to this problem the new derivatives of chitosan has been synthesized such as TMC, but due to large anionic charge of heparin the complex between heparin and TMC will cause aggregates.
For solving this problem, the negatively charged derivatives called NOCC and MCC have been synthesized. Recently a new derivative of chitosan called N- trimethyl- O-carboxy methyl chitosan has been synthesized.
In this review the nanoparticles composed of different derivatives of chitosan for oral heparin delivery will be extensively discussed.
