Functionalized Chitosan for Pharmaceutical Applications

Background: Chitosan structure versatility toward a change in an external stimulus represents a "must have" for the pharmaceutical applications, especially for the pharmaceutical formulations. Chemical modification can open new ways to obtain materials with tailored properties. Despite the great interest for conventional graft modifications, controlled/ living free radical polymerizations (i.e. RAFT, ATRP, etc.) and advanced chemistry techniques (i.e. click chemistry) seem more attractive nowadays and involve facile and fast procedure, high regioselectivity, quantitative yield, mild reaction conditions without generation of by-products.