Table 4.

Mechanism of anticancer activity of nanochitosan (composite) in some target cells.

Nanochitosan (composite)	Target cell(s)	Mechanism of action	Test	Outcome	Year	Ref.
Nano chitosan	Breast cancer mice model 4	Interference to RNA and immunoenhancement	In vivo	Inhibition of angiogenesis and proliferation	2010  2015	[17]  [211]
	Human gastric cancer cells	Sustained release manner	In vitro	Inhibition of cells proliferation	2010  2005	[17]  [213]
	Ovarian cancer cells	Binding of αvβ3 integrin with tumor cell receptors	In vivo	Inhibition of tumor growth	2010	[216]
	HCC cells	Decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential, and fragmentation of DNA, suppression of VEGFR2 gene expression	In vitro	Cell death and inhibition of angiogenesis	2010  2007	[17]  [95]
Paclitaxel-glycol chitosan nano composite	MCF-7	sustained release of paclitaxel by EPR effect	In vitro	Tumor growth inhibition	2006	[214]
Chitosan-curcumin nano formulation	Solid tumor	Sustained release manner, DNA damage, cell cycle blockage and elevation of ROS levels	In vitro	Inhibition of tumor growth	2018	[219]
Chitosan folate hesperetin nanoparticles	HCT15 cells	Passive targeting through the leaky vasculature of tumor environment	In vivo	Cellular apoptosis	2018	[220]
Peptide-labeled chitosan nanoparticle	Solid tumors	Tumor targeted delivery for short interfering RNA (siRNA)	In vivo	Inhibition of tumor growth	2010	[216]