Dendronized Systems for the Delivery of Chemotherapeutics.

This chapter reviews the use of dendronized systems as nanocarriers for the delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs. Dendronized systems include dendrimers prepared through convergent methods as well as other systems containing dendrons (e.g., polymers, nanoparticles, liposomes). The preparation of such systems is detailed, followed by the various conjugation techniques used for the transport of chemotherapeutic drugs and their specific delivery to tumor cells. In addition, the ability of dendronized systems to provide passive and active targeting to tumors is discussed. The efficacy of drug delivery using dendronized systems is also illustrated through specific examples of kinetic and biological studies. Finally, the newest trends in conjugation of the most common chemotherapeutics to dendronized systems are described. Overall, this chapter highlights dendronized systems as a way to improve the therapeutic efficiency of drugs for the treatment of cancer. All the recent developments in areas, such as biodegradable dendrimers, modifications to enhance biocompatibility, selectively cleavable drug conjugations, ligand-mediated targeting, and the potential for multifunctional properties, show promises for future advances in cancer therapy.