Recent Strategies to Develop Polysaccharide-Based Nanomaterials for Biomedical Applications

Polysaccharides are abundant in nature, renewable, nontoxic, and intrinsically biodegradable. They possess a high level of functional groups including hydroxyl, amino, and carboxylic acid groups. These functional groups can be utilized for further modification of polysaccharides with small molecules, polymers, and crosslinkers; the modified polysaccharides have been used as effective building blocks in fabricating novel biomaterials for various biomedical applications such as drug delivery carriers, cell‐encapsulating biomaterials, and tissue engineering scaffolds. This review describes recent strategies to modify polysaccharides for the development of polysaccharide‐based biomaterials; typically self‐assembled micelles, crosslinked microgels/nanogels, three‐dimensional hydrogels, and fibrous meshes. In addition, the outlook is briefly discussed on the important aspects for the current and future development of polysaccharide‐based biomaterials, particularly tumor‐targeting intracellular drug delivery nanocarriers. Modified polysaccharides are used as effective building blocks for fabricating novel biomaterials, typically self‐assembled micelles, crosslinked microgels/nanogels, three‐dimensional hydrogels, and fibrous meshes for various biomedical applications, such as drug delivery carriers, cell‐encapsulating biomaterials, and tissue engineering scaffolds.