Dendritic nanocarriers based on hyperbranched polymers

Abstract

Hyperbranched polymers are obtained through one-step polymerization reactions and exhibit properties that are very similar to those of perfect dendrimer analogues. Therefore, hyperbranched polymers are a suitable alternative for perfect dendrimers as building blocks for dendritic nanocarrier systems. With regard to using soluble hyperbranched polymers as carrier systems, their flexible chains are a major benefit as they can adopt and compartment guest molecules. Upon encapsulation, the properties of the host decides the fate of the guest, e.g., solubility, but the host can also shield a guest from the environment and protect it, e.g., from degradation and deactivation. With regard to the advantages of using hyperbranched polymers as nanocarrier systems and their scalable synthesis, we will discuss different types of hyperbranched polymers and their application as nanocarrier systems for drugs, dyes, and other guest molecules.

Biodegradable Core–Multishell Nanocarriers: Influence of Inner Shell Structure on the Encapsulation Behavior of Dexamethasone and Tacrolimus

“…Frequently used core structures are the polyester Boltorn ® H40 [13,14], poly (ethyleneimine) (PEI) and the highly hydrophilic hyperbranched polyglycerolamine (hPG-NH2) [15,16]. Initially designed as a unimolecular liposome, the CMS nanotransporter has been reported by our group for the transport of both hydrophilic and lipophilic guest molecules [11,15]. The CMS nanocarrier can solubilize hydrophobic guest molecules in a hydrophilic environment and vice versa [16].…”

“…A more sophisticated structure is the so-called core-multishell (CMS) nanocarrier that extends the idea of the unimolecular micelle to the parent structure of a unimolecular liposome [9][10][11]. While a unimolecular micelle consists of simple, usually hydrophilic polymeric chains anchored to a dendritic core [12], the CMS nanocarrier is a unimolecular structure that has a branched core-unit with amphiphilic polymeric chains attached to it, which at least consist of one hydrophilic and one hydrophobic block (see Figure 1).…”

Polyester-Based, Biodegradable Core-Multishell Nanocarriers for the Transport of Hydrophobic Drugs

“…This drawback can be resolved by creating a micelle, as visualized in Figure 1, which is covalently linked at its focal point [4]. Although there have been advances in the field of unimolecular micelles, which are based upon hyperbranched and dendritic core molecules, such as hyperbranched poly(ethylene imine), hyperbranched polyglycerol, or hyperbranched polyester Boltorn ™ , little progress has been made in biodegradable systems [5,6]. The majority of published work focuses on solubilizing drugs in water-soluble nanocarriers.…”

“…As previously reported poly(ε-caprolactone) is a well-suited material for the entrapment or encapsulation of dexamethasone, we chose this linear, potentially biodegradable polymer to be a building block for the work presented here, as shown in Figure 2 [9,10]. Combining our expertise in the synthesis of hyperbranched polymers and synthesizing universal nanocarriers for the transport of drugs, our aim was to synthesize a biodegradable polyester-based core-multishell nanocarrier (CMS) for the encapsulation of dexamethasone [5,6,11]. In this paper we will show the synthesis of a CMS based on a hyperbranched polyester (shown in Figure 2) that acts as a multifunctional initiator for the ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone (ε-CL) in a grafting-from approach, which is terminated by a methoxy poly (ethylene glycol) (mPEG) chain to introduce the feature of water solubility.…”

Solubilization of phenols by multimolecular aggregates formed by low molecular weight hyperbranched polyglycidol

“…In this way, a number of active molecules can be conjugated to each unimolecular micelle reaching a high local concentration. These properties have prompted an increasing number of investigations to develop novel HBP for different kinds of applications [6][7][8][9][10].…”