Dendrimers in medical nanotechnology.

Dendrimers are a class of synthetically produced highly branched, spherical nanostructures that can be used as carrier molecules for imaging agents. A variety of dendrimers exist and each has biological properties that will alter its biodistribution. Dendrimers are composed of combinations of core types such as ethylene diamine (EDA), diaminobutyl (DAB), polyamidoamine (PAMAM) and polypropylimine (PPI) and different surface residues such as amine, carboxyl, and alcoholic groups. Increasing the number of primary amine groups attached to the core will increase the size of the dendrimer, which is known by the term ‘generation’ of the dendrimer. Because dendrimers are highly structured in size and shape and have a low poly-dispersity index, each dendrimer generation has distinct pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties which may prove advantageous for particular medical applications. Research has centered on developing these macromolecules as imaging agents for numerous modalities including magnetic resonance imaging, X-ray computed tomography, optical imaging and nuclear medicine. Another prospective function of dendrimers is as drug delivery vectors, whereby therapeutic payloads are encapsulated within the shell, or incorporated onto their multivalent surface, and targeted to tumor cells using ligands that specifically bind to cancer cells or in normal cells altered by nearby cancer cells. Furthermore, the larger size of high generation dendrimers offers potential to develop dual purpose agents that can act both as imaging agents and as delivery vectors, or can be imaged with more than one modality. Herein, we discuss the current and future applications of dendrimers in medicine and the central role they play in the emerging field of nanotechnology.