Chemical Modifications of Hyaluronan for Therapeutic Applications - Hyaluronic Acid for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Applications - page 168

8.7 Conclusions

HA is a ubiquitous, biocompatible polysaccharide which is
abundantly present in the human body; it can be efficiently exploited
for designing drug delivery applications. Since it is a non-toxic and
non-immunogenic biopolymer owing to its structural similarity
across species, and its limited interaction with blood components,
it can be effectively replaced with synthetic polymers used in the
pharmaceutical industry. Although HA and its derivatives are used
in several clinical applications such as osteoarthritis, ophthalmologic,
fillers in plastic surgery, wound healing, its use for drug delivery
application is not realised so far. However, many new reports are
emerging from the collective efforts of the world-wide scientific
community, so we hope to see successful commercialisation of HA
derivatives in various biopharmaceutical applications in the near
future.

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