title: Dendrimers in drug delivery and targeting: Drug-dendrimer interactions and toxicity issues.
abstract: Dendrimers are the emerging polymeric architectures that are known for their defined structures, versatility in drug delivery and high functionality whose properties resemble with biomolecules. These nanostructured macromolecules have shown their potential abilities in entrapping and/or conjugating the high molecular weight hydrophilic/hydrophobic entities by host-guest interactions and covalent bonding (prodrug approach) respectively. Moreover, high ratio of surface groups to molecular volume has made them a promising synthetic vector for gene delivery. Owing to these properties dendrimers have fascinated the researchers in the development of new drug carriers and they have been implicated in many therapeutic and biomedical applications. Despite of their extensive applications, their use in biological systems is limited due to toxicity issues associated with them. Considering this, the present review has focused on the different strategies of their synthesis, drug delivery and targeting, gene delivery and other biomedical applications, interactions involved in formation of drug-dendrimer complex along with characterization techniques employed for their evaluation, toxicity problems and associated approaches to alleviate their inherent toxicity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutics, J. C. D. M. College of Pharmacy, Sirsa, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Kanika
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Madaan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutics, J. C. D. M. College of Pharmacy, Sirsa, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Sandeep
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutics, J. C. D. M. College of Pharmacy, Sirsa, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Neelam
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Poonia
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, J. C. D. M. College of Pharmacy, Sirsa, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Viney
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lather
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutics, J. C. D. M. College of Pharmacy, Sirsa, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Deepti
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pandita
keywords: Dendrimer; drug targeting; drug-dendrimer interactions; gene delivery; polyamidoamine