Dendrimer: Globular Nanostructured Materials for Drug Delivery

Nanotechnology is an emerging research field that helps in reviving the structural design, synthesis and fabrication at the molecular magnitude. There are approximately 130 nanopharmaceutical products in development including~nanoparticles, nanocrystals, dendrimers, liposomes and micelles. The increase in the selectivity and stability of therapeutic agents can be achieved with the help of Nanoparticle drug-delivery system. But due to several factors such as drug leakage, reticuloendothelial system, (RES) uptake, immunogenicity, hydrophobicity, hemolytic toxicity, cytotoxicity, the use of nanostructures are restricted. These challenges can be overcome by surface engineering the dendrimer with bioactive agents either encapsulating into the interior of the dendrimer or by physically adsorbing them onto the surface of the demdrimer. Thus this surface engineering help to achieve the desired properties of the carrier as per the requirement of the active ingredient and it also gives an access for new potentially relevant polymer architectecture Some of the examples for surface engineering of dendrimers are Polyester dendrimer, Arginine dendrimer, Glycodendrimers, Citric acid dendrimer ,PEGylated dendrimers, etc.