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Review
. 2018 Apr 18;23(4):938.
doi: 10.3390/molecules23040938.

Dendrimers for Drug Delivery

Abhay Singh Chauhan  1
Affiliations
Review

Dendrimers for Drug Delivery

Abhay Singh Chauhan. Molecules. .

Abstract

Dendrimers have come a long way in the last 25 years since their inception. Originally created as a wonder molecule of chemistry, dendrimer is now in the fourth class of polymers. Dr. Donald Tomalia first published his seminal work on Poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers in 1985. Application of dendrimers as a drug delivery system started in late 1990s. Dendrimers for drug delivery are employed using two approaches: (i) formulation and (ii) nanoconstruct. In the formulation approach, drugs are physically entrapped in a dendrimer using non-covalent interactions, whereas drugs are covalently coupled on dendrimers in the nanoconstruct approach. We have demonstrated the utility of PAMAM dendrimers for enhancing solubility, stability and oral bioavailability of various drugs. Drug entrapment and drug release from dendrimers can be controlled by modifying dendrimer surfaces and generations. PAMAM dendrimers are also shown to increase transdermal permeation and specific drug targeting. Dendrimer platforms can be engineered to attach targeting ligands and imaging molecules to create a nanodevice. Dendrimer nanotechnology, due to its multifunctional ability, has the potential to create next generation nanodevices.

Keywords: PAMAM; Tomalia; dendrimer; multifunctional; solubility; stability; targeting; transdermal.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic presentation of a G4 dendrimer containing four generations. Reproduced with permission [8].
Scheme 1
Scheme 1
Strategy to select dendrimers for drug entrapment.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Structure of indomethacin.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effect of dendrimer surface and generation on entrapment potential (I/D) of dendrimers. Reproduced with permission [8].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Percentage of intact resveratrol remaining in the formulations after Day 1.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Dissolution profile of dendrimer–resveratrol formulations.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Transdermal delivery of dendrimer formulations (G4-NH2, G4-OH, G4.5-COOH dendrimers, indomethacin). Reproduced with permission [2].
Figure 7
Figure 7
Schematic representation of muco-adhesiveness of thiolated dendrimers. (I) disulfide bond formation with glycoproteins of mucus membrane; (II) inter cross linking of thiolated dendrimers to form polymeric network. Reproduced with permission [19].
Figure 8
Figure 8
PAMAM dendrimer-Albumin nanoparticle nano-assembly for delivery of paclitaxel. Reproduced with permission [20].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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