Chitosan has received much attention as a functional biopolymer for diverse applications, especially in pharmaceutics and medicine. Our recent efforts focused on the chemical and biological modification of chitosan in order to increase its solubility in aqueous solutions and absorbability in the in vivo system, thus for a better use of chitosan. This review summarizes chitosan modification and its pharmaceutical/biomedical applications based on our achievements as well as the domestic and overseas developments: (1) enzymatic preparation of low molecular weight chitosans/chitooligosaccharides with their hypocholesterolemic and immuno-modulating effects; (2) the effects of chitin, chitosan and their derivatives on blood hemostasis; and (3) synthesis of a non-toxic ion ligand—D-Glucosaminic acid from Oxidation of D-Glucosamine for cancer and diabetes therapy.

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Anti-infective agents are used to treat disorders caused by bacteria, viruses, protozoa, worms, and fungi (including yeast). They are substances used on humans, animals and plants that destroy harmful microorganisms or inhibit their activity. In this mini-review, we are focusing on novel development of anti-fungal agents that have been published during the past two years. Fungi are eukaryotic microorganisms comprising over 100,000 species. Nearly 40% of all deaths from hospital-acquired infections were caused by fungi over the past 20 years. An effective anti-fungal agent is toxic to the pathogenic fungi, but not to the host. Treatment of fungi diseases, however, is often limited because anti-fungal agents are often toxic to the mammalian or plant host. In this review, 11 patents were chronologically and unbiasedly selected from 454 that fit the criteria out of a 4,716,037 patents search. These patents highlight the novel approaches that have been used to tackle difficult fungi. The strategies include targeting key fungal structures and metabolic pathways, developing manufacturing processes of anti-fungal reagents, unique membrane interfering fungicides, and plant and insect defensins.