How are dendrimers delivered?

How are dendrimers delivered?

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.

What are PAMAM dendrimers?

PAMAM dendrimers are a family of highly branched and mono-disperse synthetic macromolecules with well-defined structures and compositions. Synthesis of these nanocarriers can be carried out through the divergent route.

How dendrimers are used in nanomaterial synthesis?

Dendrimers can be synthesized by two major approaches. In the divergent approach, used in early periods, the synthesis starts from the core of the dendrimer to which the arms are attached by adding building blocks in an exhaustive and step-wise manner.

What are dendrimers in biomedical field?

Dendrimers in biomedical field. Dendritic polymers have advantage in biomedical applications. These dendritic polymers are analogous to protein, enzymes, and viruses, and are easily functionalized. Dendrimers and other molecules can either be attached to the periphery or can be encapsulated in their interior voids [56].

Can dendrimers be used as drug delivery vehicles?

Dendrimers have been explored as drug delivery vehicles by various routes of drug administration and for other biomedical applications. The chapter provides an overview of physicochemical properties of dendrimers and its various biomedical applications. 15.1. Introduction

Do dendrimers improve the oral bioavailability of hydrophobic drugs?

Dendrimers have been used to improve the oral bioavailability of hydrophobic drugs such as propanolol, camptothecin analogues, silbylin, doxorubicin, and naproxen [ 60, 63 ]. The dendrimers increased the oral bioavailability by increasing water solubility, drug penetration, and bypassing drug efflux pump.

What are the surface functional groups in dendrimers used for?

The surface functional groups in the dendrimers can be utilized for the conjugation of drugs, diagnostic agents, targeting ligands, for surface modification for various biomedical applications ( Figure 15.3 ).