Application of Bacterial Nanocellulose in Cancer Drug Delivery: A Review

Bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) is one of the natural biopolymers with unique features, such as nontoxicity, biocompatibility, high tensile profile, nanofiber structure, and purity. The current review aimed to summarize the latest development in BNC-based biomaterials in cancer drug delivery. The original articles were found by searching key databases, including PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Scientific and using key terms such as “bacterial nanocellulose OR bacterial cellulose OR BNC” AND “cancer OR carcinoma OR tumor”. The obtained data were in a wide timeframe and the English language. Totally, 350 articles were found from the three main databases (i.e., 106, 251, and 173 articles from PubMed, Scopus, and the Web of Science, respectively). In general, 32 articles met the inclusion criteria after duplicate removal and screening according to the aim of the study. In this review study, different applications of the BNC were considered for cancer drug delivery in addition to describing advanced methods that may be applied to improve therapeutic potency while reducing the adverse effects of chemodrugs by decreasing their dosages. The high ratio of the surface area-to-volume and easy modifications of their chemical components lead to BNC potential use as an appropriate matrix structure for the binding and controlled release of various pharmaceutical agents, specifically for topical or transdermal administrations. In addition, BNC-based products regulate the release of hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds, thus providing appropriate materials related to cancer drug delivery. However, undoubtedly, further developments of BNC-based products as cancer drug delivery systems require more extensive investigations.