title: Understanding specific and nonspecific toxicities: a requirement for the development of dendrimer-based pharmaceuticals.
abstract: Dendrimer conjugates for pharmaceutical development are capable of enhancing the local delivery of cytotoxic drugs. The ability to conjugate different targeting ligands to the dendrimer allows for the cytotoxic drug to be focused at the intended target cell while minimizing collateral damage in normal cells. Dendrimers offer several advantages over other polymer conjugates by creating a better defined, more monodisperse therapeutic scaffold. Toxicity from the dendrimer, targeted and nonspecific, is not only dependent upon the number of targeting and therapeutic ligands conjugated, but can be influenced by the repeating building blocks that grow the dendrimer, the dendrimer generation, as well as the surface termination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and Biological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. dmcnerny@umich.com
authors.forename: Daniel Q
authors.initials: DQ
authors.lastname: McNerny
authors.forename: Pascale R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Leroueil
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003603:Cytotoxins / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D050091:Dendrimers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular
chemical_list: D003603:Cytotoxins; D050091:Dendrimers; D004337:Drug Carriers