Chapter 9 - Oral drug delivery potential of dendrimers

Abstract

Oral route is among the most common routes for drug administration due to its own merits and ease. The continuous advancement of drug delivery in the recent past, nanotherapeutics have attracted researchers as a novel, safer, and efficient technology for effective drug delivery. However, in most instances the nanomedicine-based approaches have been following the parenteral route of drug administration. Several nanocarriers have been reported in the last few decades for the improved delivery of drugs. Most of these drug carriers have frequently been reported as delivering through routes other than oral. Recent updates, however, say that these carriers have immense potential to be delivered via oral routes as well. In this regard, dendrimers with three-dimensional polymeric architecture, tuneable functionality, and nanometric size are better suited for oral delivery. Dendrimers are reported as carriers for solubility enhancement, for therapeutic delivery, to reduce the cytotoxicity of the drug, to enhance stability of the drug, and for increasing bioavailability of drugs in oral administration. Though there is a scarcity of the oral delivery of drugs using dendrimers, many drugs, such as propranolol, triclosan, nitric oxide, clotrimazole, ketoconazole, silicone and so on have been successfully delivered using dendrimers. The present chapter highlights the potential application of dendrimers in oral drug delivery.