An Overview of Dendrimers as Novel Carriers in Drug Delivery

Dendrimers and dendrimer based nanocarriers are gaining much attention in the field of therapeutic drug delivery owing to their advantages such as ease of multifunctionalization, well-defined chemical structure, near-to-monodispersity, as well as multivalency. Dendrimers are used as vectors in gene therapy, solubility enhancers and blood substitutes. Dendrimers have also been investigated as genetic material carriers with potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications. In the current review, an overview of the different types, synthesis methods, unique structural properties, factors affecting properties and applications of dendrimers. Further, the major concerns and future perspectives of the dendrimers have been discussed. The surface-modified dendrimers have been succeeded in their clinical translation and making remarkable progress in the phase of clinical trials. Extensive research is required in order to foster a robust large-scale synthetic method with adequate reproducibility. Significant studies necessarily be carriedout to find the correlation between the degree of surface modification (product quality) and their biological behavior, like pharmacokinetic profiles, therapeutic efficiency, safety and toxicity. In conclusion, dendrimers and dendritic nanoparticles have prospective insight in the arena of health sector in the forthcoming years.