Angiogenesis is a physiological process involving the growth of new blood vessels, which provides oxygen and required nutrients for the development of various pathological conditions. In a tumor microenvironment, this process upregulates the growth and proliferation of tumor cells, thus any stage of angiogenesis can be a potential target for cancer therapies. In the present study, chitosan and his derivatives have been used to design novel polymer-based nanoparticles. The therapeutic potential of these newly designed nanoparticles has been evaluated. The antioxidant and MTT assays were performed to know the antioxidant properties and their biocompatibility. The in vivo antiangiogenic properties of the nanoparticles were evaluated by using a chick Chorioallantoic Membrane (CAM) model. The obtained results demonstrate that chitosan derivatives-based nanostructures strongly enhance the therapeutic effect compared to chitosan alone, which also correlates with antitumor activity, demonstrated by the in vitro MTT assay on human epithelial cervical Hep-2 tumor cells. This study opens up new direction for the use of the chitosan derivatives-based nanoparticles for designing of antiangiogenic nanostructured materials, for future cancer therapy.
Keywords: angiogenesis; antioxidant action; cancer therapy; chitosan derivatives; chorioallantoic membrane; nanoparticles.