Animal-Based Materials in the Formulation of Nanocarriers for Anticancer Therapeutics

Animal-based materials such as, albumin, gelatin, hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate and chitosan are commonly used in the formulation of nanocarriers for anticancer therapeutics. Most of these materials are polymeric in nature and generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) because of their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and non-immunogenicity. The presence of functional groups in their structures makes it easy to fabricate nanocarriers for various cancer therapeutics. The clinical utility of protein-based nanoparticles is safe as known from the market approval of Abraxane (albumin-bound paclitaxel nanoparticles) by the US FDA. A brief overview of these materials and their utilization in the preparation of nanoparticles for cancer therapeutics is presented. In addition, various examples of in vitro and in vivo studies are summarized.