PAMAM dendrimers as efficient drug and gene delivery nanosystems for cancer therapy

Abstract

Drug delivery systems for cancer chemotherapy are employed to improve the effectiveness and decrease the side-effects of highly toxic drugs. Most chemotherapy agents have indiscriminate cytotoxicity that affects normal, as well as cancer cells. To overcome these problems, new more efficient nanosystems for drug delivery are increasingly being investigated. Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers are an example of a versatile and reproducible type of nanocarrier that can be loaded with drugs, and modified by attaching target-specific ligands that recognize receptors that are over-expressed on cancer cells. PAMAM dendrimers with a high density of cationic charges display electrostatic interactions with nucleic acids (DNA, siRNA, miRNA, etc.), creating dendriplexes that can preserve the nucleic acids from degradation. Dendrimers are prepared by conducting several successive “generations” of synthetic reactions so their size can be easily controlled and they have good uniformity. Dendrimers are particularly well-suited to co-delivery applications (simultaneous delivery of drugs and/or genes). In the current review, we discuss dendrimer-based targeted delivery of drugs/genes and co-delivery systems mainly for cancer therapy.

Delivering the Messenger: Advances in Technologies for Therapeutic mRNA Delivery

“…Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) or polypropyleniminebased dendrimers have been extensively studied for gene delivery. 71 Khan et al 72 synthesized fatty chain-modified PAMAM dendrimers for siRNA delivery, which were subsequently used by Chahal et al 73,74 to develop a single-dose, adjuvant-free, intramuscularly delivered, self-replicating mRNA vaccine platform to express antigens for Ebola, H1N1 influenza, Toxoplasma gondii, and Zika. In another report, Islam et al 75 utilized a modified PAMAM (generation 0) dendrimer co-formulated with poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and ceramide-PEG in a polymer-lipid hybrid nanoparticle to transfect phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) mRNA in vivo.…”

A Group of Complexes Based on PAMAM and Quantum Dots Used in Clinical Immunoassays

“…Finally, N-PAMAM (neutral PAMAM) was added followed by incubation at 4°C in a shaker bed overnight. This polymer self-assembled in aqueous solution to form polymeric micelles that encapsulated the otherwise insoluble low molecular weight guests [12]; after the reaction, dialysis was required to remove the unreacted materials. Then, the production was lyophilized, weighed, and redissolved in preserving buffer, and finally, the N-PAMAM-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG was made.…”

Electrochemical Evaluation of Aminoguanidine Hydrazone Derivative with Potential Anticancer Activity: Studies of Glassy Carbon/CNT and Gold Electrodes Both Modified with PAMAM

“…In last years, polymer-based nanomedicine has received increasing attention because of its ability to improve therapeutic efficacy in cancer treatment [10] [11] [12]. Dendritic scaffold has been found to be suitable carrier for a variety of drugs including anticancer, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-tubercular, with capacity to improve solubility and bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs [10] [13].…”

“…In last years, polymer-based nanomedicine has received increasing attention because of its ability to improve therapeutic efficacy in cancer treatment [10] [11] [12]. Dendritic scaffold has been found to be suitable carrier for a variety of drugs including anticancer, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-tubercular, with capacity to improve solubility and bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs [10] [13]. A promising alternative to solubilize AGH in aqueous media is the use of dendrimers, which are highly branched polymers and that their physicochemical properties, such as high control in their structure, size, shape, density and surface groups with many functionalities, they are ideal carriers in biomedical applications such as drug transport at specific sites in the biological system [11] [14] [15] [16].…”