Dendrimers: Advancements and Potential Applications in Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment—An Overview

Abstract

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, and the main treatment methods for this condition are surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. These treatment methods are invasive and can cause severe adverse reactions among organisms, so nanomaterials are increasingly used as structures for anticancer therapies. Dendrimers are a type of nanomaterial with unique properties, and their production can be controlled to obtain compounds with the desired characteristics. These polymeric molecules are used in cancer diagnosis and treatment through the targeted distribution of some pharmacological substances. Dendrimers have the ability to fulfill several objectives in anticancer therapy simultaneously, such as targeting tumor cells so that healthy tissue is not affected, controlling the release of anticancer agents in the tumor microenvironment, and combining anticancer strategies based on the administration of anticancer molecules to potentiate their effect through photothermal therapy or photodynamic therapy. The purpose of this review is to summarize and highlight the possible uses of dendrimers regarding the diagnosis and treatment of oncological conditions.

Targeted EGFR Nanotherapy in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

“…According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), NPs are “materials that have at least one dimension in the range of approximately 1 to 100 nm and exhibit dimension-dependent phenomena” [ 116 ]. Nanomaterials are used in the medical domain for drug and gene delivery, bio-detection of pathogens, probing of DNA structure, tumor destruction via heating (hyperthermia), and many other purposes such as integration of anticancer chemo/immuno-based drugs with multifunctional nanomedicines that have an imaging modality to determine tumor location and can respond to stimuli such as light, pH, magnetic field, or metabolic changes to trigger ChT, photothermal therapy, gene transfection, photodynamic therapy, radiotherapy, or catalytic therapy to increase tumor immunogenicity [ 117 , 118 , 119 ].…”

Nanomedicine Strategies for Targeting Tumor Stroma

“…Due to the relatively leaky vasculature in tumors compared to healthy tissues, where the range of inter-endothelial cell gaps in tumors is between 200 and 1200 nm [ 40 ], nanoparticles in this size range can traverse through these gaps and improve tumor drug accumulation. Nanoparticles including liposomes [ 41 ], inorganic nanoparticles [ 42 ], polymeric nanoparticles [ 43 ], solid lipid nanoparticles [ 44 ], micelles [ 45 ], inclusion complexes with cyclodextrins [ 46 ], and dendrimers [ 47 ] have been investigated to deliver chemotherapeutics to tumor tissues, allowing for a reduction in the systemic toxicity. Moreover, because of the progress made in chemical and material sciences, nanoparticles can now be fabricated with high payload capacity and sustained drug release.…”

Cell internalization kinetics and surface charge accessibility of surface-modified PAMAM dendrimers

“…Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers are promising polymeric materials for drug delivery applications. 1,2 These polymers have well-defined structures, composed of a central diamine core, multiple branching generations, and an outer shell of surface functional groups, with amines being the most common terminal functionality (Fig. 1).…”

“…Surface conjugation can also modulate the drug delivery properties of PAMAM dendrimers by enhancing their interaction with target cells or improving drug encapsulation and release. 1,11–14 So far, a wide variety of functional groups have been conjugated to the surface of PAMAM dendrimers, including carboxyl, hydroxyl, and acetyl groups, poly(ethylene glycol) chains, antibodies, peptides, aptamers, and sugars. 7,15–22 Nevertheless, there are still unsolved questions regarding the role of different functional groups on the cell internalization capacity of surface-modified PAMAM dendrimers, which is a major aspect of designing efficient drug delivery vehicles.…”

“…31 PEGylated PAMAM dendrimers have been used for subsequent conjugation with other molecules such as antibodies, folic acid, or biotin, which serve for cellular targeting, while also leveraging the multiple benefits of PEGylation. 1,32–34…”