Dendrimers and dendronized materials as nanocarriers

Abstract

Molecular nanostructures with well-defined particle shape and size, such as dendrimers and dendritic structures, are of great importance in the development of novel therapeutic devices. Unique properties of dendritic macromolecules render them far more useful for biomedical applications than linear polymers. Thus, over the past three decades, sizeable contributions to the polymer-based nanocarriers have come from dendrimers, which along with their endocavities, provide wide scope for structural modifications at the molecular level. New nanomaterials could be prepared using these structures as building blocks. Nanoparticle-cored dendrimers are also versatile carriers because of their colloidal stability, tunable membrane properties and ability to encapsulate or integrate a broad range of drugs and molecules. These hybrid nanocomposites aim to combine the advantage of stimuli-responsive dendritic coating, in order to regulate drug-release behaviour under different conditions, with improvements in the biocompatibility and in vivo half-time circulation of the inorganic nanoparticles. This chapter describes general characteristics of dendrimers and dendronized materials, synthetic methodologies and their properties. Successful applications of dendrimers and novel dendritic structures as nanocarriers are discussed.