Dendrimers in Drug-Delivery Applications

Due to their unique characteristics, dendrimers have attracted a great deal of attention over the past few years. The reason why they are of eminent interest in drug-delivery applications is that they have uniform size, water solubility, modifiable surface functionality and available internal cavities. Moreover, the high level of control over the dendritic architecture distinguishes them as ideal carriers. The bioactive agents may be encapsulated into the interior void spaces of the dendrimers or conjugated onto the dendrimer surface. Thus, they contribute to overcoming the challenge that quite a few drugs have low water solubility or cell membrane permeability and, therefore, never benefit patients. In this paper, we give a brief introduction of the synthesis of dendrimers, including divergent approach and convergent approach, and review two strategies used for drug-delivery applications and a vastly important function for gene transfection. (C) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010