ReviewPolymers2026
Chitosan-Curcumin Bioactive Platforms: Mechanistic Synergy, Antimicrobial Performance, and Design Principles for Next-Generation Wound Therapies.
Review in Polymers, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Chronic and infected wounds remain difficult to treat due to persistent microbial burden, biofilm formation, and dysregulated inflammation. As a multifunctional polyphenol, curcumin exhibits broad-spectrum antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activities. Nevertheless, the clinical application of curcumin is constrained by its limited solubility in water, inherent instability, and insufficient bioavailability. Chitosan, a cationic polysaccharide, provides complementary advantages including intrinsic antimicrobial activity, mucoadhesion, and the capacity to form versatile delivery platforms such as nanoparticles, hydrogels, and films. This review reframes chitosan-curcumin systems as dual-function bioactive platforms in which both the carrier and payload actively contribute to therapeutic outcomes. Mechanistically, chitosan disrupts microbial membranes, enhances bioadhesion, and supports tissue regeneration, while curcumin modulates intracellular targets including reactive oxygen species, quorum sensing, and inflammatory signaling pathways. Their integration enables multimodal antimicrobial activity, improved biofilm disruption, and coordinated regulation of the wound-healing cascade. This review critically examines the structure-function relationships governing release kinetics, stability, and cytocompatibility, with particular emphasis on chitosan molecular weight, degree of deacetylation, crosslinking strategies, and curcumin loading. Solubility-enhancement strategies for curcumin, including surfactants, nanoparticles, solid dispersions, and chemical derivatives, are evaluated in the context of antimicrobial efficacy and cytotoxicity. Finally, the review highlights translational challenges and future directions, such as antibiotic synergy, antifungal applications, formulation complexity, and the emerging role of artificial intelligence in predictive material design. Collectively, these insights establish design principles for next-generation multifunctional biomaterials that integrate antimicrobial activity with immune modulation and tissue repair.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.