Dendrimers in Anticancer Drug Delivery

Recent development and advances in the application of nanotechnology in the field of medicine have led to the evolution of multifunctional “smart” nanocarriers that are capable of delivering one or more therapeutic agents effectively, safely and selectively to tumor cells, including intracellular gene-specific targeting. Dendrimers have a high level of control over the synthesis of dendritic architecture, well-defined size, shape, molecular weight, membrane interaction and monodispersity, making them a perfect example of one such multifunctional smart nanocarrier. The 3D nano-polymeric architecture of dendrimer makes it an appropriate choice for drug and gene delivery vectors. The functional groups attached on the surface of dendrimers permit the addition of other moieties that can actively target certain diseases, which are now widely used as tumor-targeting strategies. Along with being compact and globular in structure, dendrimers also exhibit interior cavity spaces and multiple surface functional groups, which play a vital role in encapsulating drug molecules both in the interior of the dendrimers (physical encapsulation) as well as in the surface functional groups (covalent conjugations). The application of dendrimers in biomedicine has recently attracted much attention worldwide. Dendrimers are interesting in the field of biomedical applications due to their unique characteristics.

Keywords: Biomedical Applications, Dendrimers, Drug Delivery, Drug Encapsulation, Gene Specific Targeting, Nanocarriers, Nanotechnology, Tumor Targeting.