ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes Chitosan, a natural polymer with excellent properties, as the ideal candidate for the hydrophilic part of polymeric micelles or nanoparticles (NPs). The generation of NPs includes natural or synthetic biocompatible and biodegradable polymers. The chapter focuses on NPs obtained from amphiphilic chitosan derivatives. It also focuses on chemical modifications of chitosan, highlighting those that allow the preparation of amphiphilic derivatives that are intended to encapsulate therapeutic agents for biomedical and biopharmaceutical applications. The chapter revises the literature on the regioselective synthesis of chitosan derivatives, focusing on the addition of hydrophobic groups to the chitosan chain through alkylation and acylation reactions, aiming to tailor the polymer solubility. As a viable and cost-effective strategy, amphiphilic derivatives with self-assembly properties has been widely used to prepare chitosan nanocarriers that have been investigated as vehicles for the drug delivery, such as proteins and peptides, anti-inflammatory drugs, and anticancer drugs.
