Role of Nanoparticles in Biodegradation and Their Importance in Environmental and Biomedical Applications

Table 1

The sources, benefits, and drawbacks of biodegradable products.

Biodegradable products	Source	Availability	Benefits	Drawbacks	Reference
Natural biodegradable products	Chitosan	Isolated from shrimps, crabs, insect shells, and cartilages	Biodegradability, biocompatibility, and mucosal immunity	Only acidic soluble and limited usage	[35, 36]
	Hyaluronic acid	From animal tissues and through fermentation of microbes	Biocompatibility and limited toxicity	High cost and no assurance of purity	[37, 38]
	Liposomes	Available as phospholipids and ceramides through self-assembly	Contains adjuvants with multiple layers	Instability and cannot be synthesized in abundance	[39–41]
	Sodium alginate	Available in seaweed through microbial processes	Water soluble and retains more chitosan properties	No targets in complex phase	[42, 43]
Synthetic biodegradable products	Chitosan by-products	Chitosan produced through chemical alteration	Enables incorporation of various antigens and immunomodulators	Toxicity due to inclusion of chemicals for synthesis	[36]
	PLGA	Obtained by the polymerization of lactic and glycolic acid	Used in most parts of the body including mucosa	Instability, more usage of required organic solvents and administration route through mucosa is ineffective	[44]
	Polyanhydrides	Available as methyl vinyl ether and maleic hydride	Enables sustained drug delivery and surface deprivation	Higher hydrolytic sensitivity with limited benefits	[45]
	Micelles	Using amphiphiles	Hydrophobic core incorporates water-soluble drugs	Inconsistency and not produced in abundance	[46]
	Poly-L lysine dendrigraft	By polycondensation of lysine	Mild toxicity and enables targeted delivery	Interference between immunogenicity and booster immunity and processes are quite complex	[47]