PAMAM Dendrimer‐Based Nanodevices for Nuclear Medicine Applications

Abstract

Nuclear medicine, involving nuclear medicine imaging and radiotherapy (RT), has become a mainstay of theranostics in the field of nanomedicine and several examples have been successfully translated into clinical practice. The combination of radionuclides with dendrimers has long been investigated in nuclear imaging, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and single‐photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), providing functional information for whole body quantitative analysis with high sensitivity due to the unique structural advantages of the dendrimer platform. Besides, radioisotopes with both therapeutic and imaging functionalities can also be combined with dendrimer platforms for theranostic applications. In this review, the recent advances in the development of radionuclide‐labeled poly(amidoamine) dendrimer‐based nanodevices for targeted PET, SPECT, SPECT/computed tomography, SPECT/magnetic resonance imaging of tumors, RT, as well as for SPECT‐imaging‐guided RT of cancer are summarized. Current restrictions hindering the clinical translation of dendrimer‐based nuclear nanodevices and future prospects are also discussed.

Applications and Limitations of Dendrimers in Biomedicine

“…A great interest has been shown in the biomedical applications of dendrimers, especially for their capacity to be used as targeted drug [ 7 , 14 , 15 , 16 ] and gene delivery systems [ 17 , 18 , 19 ]. Advances in diagnostics that use imaging techniques were made [ 20 , 21 , 22 ], along with the improvement of treatments for diseases like cancer [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ], cardio-vascular diseases [ 27 ], inflammatory diseases [ 26 , 28 , 29 ], and viral and bacterial infections [ 26 , 29 ]. Even though dendrimers possess a wide range of applications in biomedicine, their toxicity was reported as well, for the assessment of limitations in their usage [ 5 , 30 , 31 ].…”

Intelligent Molybdenum Disulfide Complexes as a Platform for Cooperative Imaging‐Guided Tri‐Mode Chemo‐Photothermo‐Immunotherapy

“…[ 17 ] For effective cancer therapy, PTT has been combined with chemotherapy by integrating photothermal agents, such as gold nanostars, [ 18 ] molybdenum disulfide nanoflakes (MoS 2 ), [ 19 ] or conducting polymers [ 20 ] with chemotherapeutic drugs. [ 21 ] For instance, in a recent study, Zhang and co‐workers developed polydopamine (PDA)‐coated gold nanorods that can be loaded with cisplatin (Pt) through covalent coordination for effective combination of PTT and chemotherapy. [ 22 ] Nam and co‐workers demonstrate that PTT combined with chemotherapy can trigger potent antitumor immunity by polydopamine‐coated spiky gold nanoparticles (NPs) loaded with doxorubicin.…”

Dendritic metal complexes for bioimaging. Recent advances

“…For PET, the energy of positron emitting isotopes is variable, but all generate by annihilation two 511 keV photons; the PET image is based on the secondary emission of the γ-photons. PET uses generally lighter elements than SPECT, such as 13 N, 15 O, 18 F, 64 Cu, 68 Ga, 86 Y, 89 Zr, but also 124 I. The very high sensitivity of such techniques allows the use of very low concentrations of radionucleides, from 10 -6 to 10 -8 M. The field of radioactive dendrimers has been early reviewed [86], and more recently [87], on precise topics such as PET [88], or radioactive PAMAM dendrimers [89].…”