Title:Polymer-dendrimer Hybrids as Carriers of Anticancer Agents
Volume: 23
Issue: 4
Author(s): Guillermo Leobardo Rodríguez-Acosta, Carlos Hernández-Montalbán, María Fernanda Sabrina Vega-Razo, Irving Osiel Castillo-Rodríguez and Marcos Martínez-García*
Affiliation:
- Instituto de Química, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Circuito Exterior,
Coyoacán, C.P. 04510, México D.F., México
Keywords:
Anticancer activity, drug delivery, polymer, dendrimer, micelles, nanostructures.
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 important and interesting in the field of drug transport and delivery since micelles
can encapsulate hydrophobic molecules in their nucleus, improve the solubility of drugs, have active
molecules in their outer layer, and, due to their nanometric size, they can take advantage of the
EPR effect, prolong circulation time and avoid renal clearance. Furthermore, bioactive molecules
(could be joined covalently or by host-host interaction), such as drugs, bioimaging molecules, proteins,
targeting ligands, “cross-linkable” molecules, or linkages sensitive to internal or external stimuli,
can be incorporated into them. The confined multivalent cooperativity and the ability to modify
the dendritic structure provide versatility to create and improve the amphiphiles used in the micellar
supramolecular field. As discussed in this review, the most studied structures are hybrid copolymers,
which are formed by the combination of linear polymers and dendrons. Amphiphilic dendrimer
micelles have achieved efficient and promising results in both in vitro and in vivo tests, and
this encourages research for their future application in nanotherapies.
