ABSTRACT
Increasing number of deaths caused by diseases such as cancers, inflammatory and self-immunologic diseases has led to increased research into these fields. Further, the interest is directed to use biopolymers including polysaccharides synthesized by microorganisms, in order to obtain the new biomaterials (i.e., carriers, vectors, scaffolds) with medical and pharmaceutical applications. From this point of view, in the last time the attention of researches was focused on curdlan, a polysaccharide with native antitumour proprieties. Curdlan is a neutral bacterial exopolysaccharide produced by Agrobacterium species under nitrogen-limited condition, composed primarily of linear glucan with β-(1,3)-glycosidic linkages. The insolubility of curdlan, generally attributed to its structure, has drastically limited its applications. The ability to control the curdlan structure has led to synthesis of new derivatives and has therefore encouraged their use in development of new biomaterials with applications in medical and pharmaceutical fields.
The aim of this chapter is to present the most recent progress on the curdlan and its derivatives with emphasis on chemical modifications and their applications in medicine and pharmaceutical field.
