Chapter 8 - Dendrimers as novel drug-delivery system and its applications

Abstract

Dendrimers are hyperbranched nanostructure with some noteworthy features such as low polydispersity index with surface functionality, versatile properties, uniformity in size, and molecular weight. They consist of a core molecule, branches, and peripheral groups which can be synthesized by two techniques, divergent growth method and convergent growth method. However, some recent techniques have also been employed for the synthesis of dendrimers such as lego chemistry, click chemistry, and double exponential growth method. Depending on different types of core and peripheral groups, the dendrimer can be classified as polyamidoamine dendrimer, poly(propylene imine) dendrimer, glycodendrimer, liquid crystalline dendrimer, and peptide dendrimer. In order to attain more efficient results, dendrimers are being developed by applying some modifications in their properties, namely, PEGylation, liposomes locked in dendrimers, synthesis of targeted dendritic scaffolds. Dendrimers offer several applications in the field of photodynamic therapy, gene delivery, small interfering ribonucleic acid delivery, oligonucleotide delivery, vaccine delivery, imaging, etc. This chapter provides an insight into the dendrimer with its properties, synthesis scheme, different classes, functional modification, and various applications along with some ideas about the commercially available dendrimer.