Sikwal Dhiraj R, Kalhapure Rahul S, Govender Thirumala
Discipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X54001, Durban 4000, South Africa.
Discipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X54001, Durban 4000, South Africa.
Eur J Pharm Sci. 2017 Jan 15;97:113-134. doi: 10.1016/j.ejps.2016.11.013. Epub 2016 Nov 15.
In recent years, a new class of dendrimer, known as Janus dendrimers (JDs), has attracted much attention due to their different structures and properties to the conventional symmetric forms. The broken symmetry of JDs offers the opportunity to form complex self-assembled materials, and presents new sets of properties that are presently inconceivable for homogeneous or symmetrical dendrimers. Due to their unique features, JDs have a promising future in pharmaceutical and biomedical fields, as seen from the recent interest in their application in conjugating multiple drugs and targeting moieties, forming supramolecular hydrogels, enabling micellar delivery systems, and preparing nano-vesicles, known as dendrimersomes, for drug encapsulation. The present paper is the first review, with an emphasis on various emerging applications of JDs, in the drug delivery and biomedical field reported so far. In addition, the paper describes different synthetic methods for producing JDs that can guide the design of new biocompatible forms with pharmacological activities, and that have the potential to be nano drug delivery vehicles. Furthermore, future studies to optimize the applications of JDs in drug delivery sciences and biomedical field to realize their potential to treat various disease conditions are identified and highlighted. Overall, this review identifies the current status of JDs in terms of their synthesis and applications, as well as the future research for their translation into macromolecules for clinical applications to solve health problems. It highlights the future combined efforts needed to be taken by dendrimer chemists, formulation scientist and microbiologists to develop novel antibacterials and nanomedicines from JDs.
近年来，一类新型树枝状大分子，即Janus树枝状大分子（JDs），因其与传统对称形式不同的结构和性质而备受关注。JDs的对称性破缺为形成复杂的自组装材料提供了机会，并呈现出一系列目前对于均相或对称树枝状大分子来说难以想象的新性质。由于其独特的特性，JDs在制药和生物医学领域有着广阔的前景，从最近对其在共轭多种药物和靶向部分、形成超分子水凝胶、实现胶束递送系统以及制备用于药物封装的纳米囊泡（即树枝状大分子囊泡）方面的应用兴趣可见一斑。本文是第一篇综述，重点关注了迄今为止报道的JDs在药物递送和生物医学领域的各种新兴应用。此外，本文还描述了制备JDs的不同合成方法，这些方法可以指导具有药理活性的新型生物相容性形式的设计，并且有潜力成为纳米药物递送载体。此外，还确定并强调了未来优化JDs在药物递送科学和生物医学领域的应用以实现其治疗各种疾病状况潜力的研究。总体而言，本综述确定了JDs在合成和应用方面的现状，以及将其转化为临床应用的大分子以解决健康问题的未来研究方向。它强调了树枝状大分子化学家、制剂科学家和微生物学家未来需要共同努力，从JDs开发新型抗菌剂和纳米药物。
