Applications and Limitations of Dendrimers in Biomedicine

Abstract

Biomedicine represents one of the main study areas for dendrimers, which have proven to be valuable both in diagnostics and therapy, due to their capacity for improving solubility, absorption, bioavailability and targeted distribution. Molecular cytotoxicity constitutes a limiting characteristic, especially for cationic and higher-generation dendrimers. Antineoplastic research of dendrimers has been widely developed, and several types of poly(amidoamine) and poly(propylene imine) dendrimer complexes with doxorubicin, paclitaxel, imatinib, sunitinib, cisplatin, melphalan and methotrexate have shown an improvement in comparison with the drug molecule alone. The anti-inflammatory therapy focused on dendrimer complexes of ibuprofen, indomethacin, piroxicam, ketoprofen and diflunisal. In the context of the development of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, dendrimer complexes of fluoroquinolones, macrolides, beta-lactamines and aminoglycosides have shown promising effects. Regarding antiviral therapy, studies have been performed to develop dendrimer conjugates with tenofovir, maraviroc, zidovudine, oseltamivir and acyclovir, among others. Furthermore, cardiovascular therapy has strongly addressed dendrimers. Employed in imaging diagnostics, dendrimers reduce the dosage required to obtain images, thus improving the efficiency of radioisotopes. Dendrimers are macromolecular structures with multiple advantages that can suffer modifications depending on the chemical nature of the drug that has to be transported. The results obtained so far encourage the pursuit of new studies.

Kidney-Targeted Delivery of Prolyl Hydroxylase Domain Protein 2 Small Interfering RNA with Nanoparticles Alleviated Renal Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury

“…Indeed, our data showed that there were no renal injuries in G5-FA-treated mice, suggesting a safe dose of folic acid in the present study. In addition, although PAMAM dendrimers have been widely used for drug delivery, dendrimers-induced cell toxicity has also been demonstrated (Neerman et al, 2004;Araújo et al, 2018;Chis et al, 2020). The PAMAM dendrimers-induced toxicity is also dose-dependent, but no toxic effects are observed in studies using doses of 5, 10 and 95 mg/kg in mice (Roberts et al, 1996;Malik et al, 1999;Yu et al, 2017).…”

Advances in Drug Delivery Nanosystems Using Graphene-Based Materials and Carbon Nanotubes

“…Efforts to miniaturize them from macro-dimensions (>1 mm) to micro-, submicro- to nano-dimensions can be traced back to the 1990s, with great progress in recent years being made with the massive introduction of nanotechnologies [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. Extremely popular are various nanoemulsions of lipidoid formations or colloidal nanodispersions of nanocrystals, i.e., nanoliposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles (NPs), and various other nanovesicles, dendrimers, polymer systems, tubules and quantum dots (QDs) are used as drug carriers [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Currently, nanoforms made from non-toxic biodegradable materials are preferred; however, in the case of nanoformulations for cancer therapy or diagnosis, inorganic carriers such as NPs of metals, metal oxides, metalloids and carbon are also used, which often potentiate the effect of the API itself [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”

Eradication of Candida albicans Biofilm Viability: In Vitro Combination Therapy of Cationic Carbosilane Dendrons Derived from 4-Phenylbutyric Acid with AgNO3 and EDTA

“…In this sense, dendritic compounds have emerged as an interesting alternative in the field of biomedicine and could be a new therapeutic approach to combat the infections caused by this pathogen [9]. Dendritic systems have well defined and monodisperse structures and are being widely studied in various biomedical fields, such as drug delivery systems, antiviral or magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents, among others [10,11]. The properties of these dendrimeric systems such as monodispersity, multivalence, among others, give them the ability to act as drugs.…”