Title:Nanomedical Applications of Amphiphilic Dendrimeric Micelles
Volume: 28
Issue: 38
Author(s): Guillermo Leobardo Rodríguez-Acosta, Carlos Hernández-Montalbán, María Fernanda Sabrina Vega-Razo, Irving Osiel Castillo-Rodríguez and Marcos Martínez-García*
Affiliation:
- Departmento de Quimica Organica, Instituto de Quimica, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Ciudad Universitaria, Circuito Exterior, Coyoacan, P.O. Box: 04510, Ciudad de Mexico,Mexico
Keywords:
Anticancer activity, amphiphilic, dendrimers, dendrons, micelles, nanostructures, supramolecular structures.
Abstract:
In recent years, polymeric materials with the ability to self-assemble into micelles
have been increasingly investigated for application in various fields, mainly in
biomedicine. Micellar morphology is interesting in the field of drug transport and delivery
since micelles can encapsulate hydrophobic molecules in their nucleus, have active
molecules in their outer layer, and due to their nanometric size, can take advantage of the
enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, prolong the time in circulation and
avoid renal clearance. In addition, nanobioactive molecules (joined in covalent form or
by host-host interaction), such as drugs, bioimaging molecules, targeting ligands, “crosslinkable”
molecules or bonds, sensitive to internal or external stimuli, can be incorporated
into them and showed better activity as anticancer agents, siRNA delivery agents as
well as antiviral and antiparasitic compounds.
The present work is a review of the information published, which is the most important
about the synthesis and biological importance of the confined multivalent cooperation
and the ability to modify the dendritic structure, provide the versatility to create and improve
the amphiphiles used in the micellar supramolecular field. The most studied structures
are the hybrid copolymers formed by the combination of linear polymers and dendrons.
However, small dendritic molecules that do not involve linear polymers have also
been developed, such as Janus dendrimers, facial dendrons, and dendritic amphiphiles
with only one dendron. Amphiphilic dendrimer micelles have achieved efficient and
promising results, both in in vitro and in vivo tests, which encourage their research for future
application in nanotherapies.
