Dendrimers: Chemical structure and properties
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1
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Pharmacology, Greece
Dendrimers, the polymers of the 21st century, are nanoscale highly branched 3D polymers, with characteristic dendritic structure, that provides a high degree of surface functionality and versatility. Dendrimers are built by divergent or convergent growth of dendritic structures, in a two-step synthesis, by a repeating series of chemical reactions, in a double exponential growth and exact positioning of building blocks, that form multiple generations of the basic structural pattern, and finally produce a spherical branching construction. As the process is repeated from one generation to the next, successive layers are added, and the sphere can be expanded to the required size. The result is a spherical macromolecular structure, with size varying from 1 to 10nm. The control over size, shape, and surface functionality makes dendrimers one of the “smartest” or most customizable nanotools, which are available commercially for medical or other use.
Dendrimers have attracted attention in Medicine, due to their capacity to function as prodrugs or drug carriers, either by encapsulating drugs within the dendritic structure, or by carrying the pharmacological agents attached via electrostatic or covalent bonds to their surface. There are many chemical classes of dendrimers; the most interesting for biological or medical use, already available in market, are Poly-Propylene Imine (PPI) and Poly-Propylene Amine (POPAM) dendrimers, Poly-Amidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers and pegylated dendrimers.
Dendrimers hold a promising future in various diagnostic procedures and pharmacological applications, especially as targeted drug delivery systems, in cases of high drug toxicity or poor drug solubility, bioavailability and permeability. They can be useful tools for optimizing drug delivery, increasing bioavailability and minimizing side effects, and they can be used as drug delivery systems in anticancer, antiretroviral and gene therapy. The problem of biocompatibility and toxicity can be overcome by careful surface engineering. Recent success in simplifying and optimizing the synthesis of dendrimers provides a large variety of structures with low cost of production. As research progresses, newer applications of dendrimers will emerge, and in the near future an increasing number of commercially available dendrimer-based drug delivery systems will appear.
Keywords:
Dendrimers,
Structure,
Drug delivery,
nanopharmacology
Conference:
8th Southeast European Congress on Xenobiotic Metabolism and Toxicity - XEMET 2010, Thessaloniki, Greece, 1 Oct - 5 Oct, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Nanopharmacology / Nanomedicine
Citation:
Papageorgiou
A and
Papaioannidou
P
(2010). Dendrimers: Chemical structure and properties.
Front. Pharmacol.
Conference Abstract:
8th Southeast European Congress on Xenobiotic Metabolism and Toxicity - XEMET 2010.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fphar.2010.60.00175
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Received:
28 Oct 2010;
Published Online:
04 Nov 2010.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Paraskevi Papaioannidou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Pharmacology, Thessaloniki, Greece, ppap@auth.gr