Dendrimer-based drug delivery systems

Dendrimer-based drug delivery systems have been successful in both improving bioavailability as well as targeting drugs. The main advantages for the use of dendrimers as drug carriers reside in their multivalent design and their well-defined structure that results from the stepwise, iterative approach used in their preparation. The anionic and neutral dendrimers have been shown to be less toxic than the cationic dendrimers but at the same time they suffer from lower permeability compared to cationic dendrimers. Typically the smaller size of dendrimers... 

Yuan, H., Luo, K., Lai, Y.S., Pu, Y.J., He, B., Wang, G., et al., 2010. A novel poly(L-glutamic acid) dendrimer based drug delivery system with both pH-sensitive and targeting functions. Molecular Pharmaceutics 7 (4), 953—962. 

Cheng Y (2012) Dendrimer-based drug delivery systems. Wiley, Hoboken... 

X. Feng, K. Yang, J. Hu, T. Xu and Y. Cheng, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Techniques in the Analysis of Pamam Dendrimer-Based Drug Delivery Systems, in Dendrimer-Based Drug Delivery Systems From Theory to Practice, ed. Y. Cheng, John Wiley 8t Sons, Inc., Hoboken, N.J., 2012, p. 439. 

Dendritic architectures (Rg. 3.8a) show very benefidal properties for the development of drug delivery systems and thus many different systems based on dendrimers,dendroms or hyperbranched polymers have been developed (Oliveira et al., 2010). In general, one can distinguish between two different release mechanisms from dendritic molecules depending on the way the... 

The promising properties of polyester dendrimers as a drug delivery system has led to further studies based on tunable architectures and molecular weights to optimize tumor accumulation [23, 24]. 

The use of polycationic moieties in drug delivery has been a subject of considerable interest for the past several decades. One of the earliest demonstrations of the potential value of polycations in chug delivery was a study by Tan in 1977, which demonstrated increased uptake of the SV40 virus when infections were carried out in the presence of polycations.1 Other early efforts involved direct cationization of proteins to enhance cellular uptake.2,3 Simultaneously, extensive investigations of the ability of a variety of polycationic vehicles to enhance the uptake of DNA were made.4 These vehicles include cationic liposomes,5 6 poly-L-lysine,7 polyethe-leneimine,8 amino-dendrimers,9 and a variety of other natural and synthetic polycations. Only in recent years, however, has the surprisingly diverse potential of polycation-based delivery systems been realized. This revelation has come primarily from the discovery and utilization of nonclassical transport-based pathways. 

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