title: More than Just Size: Challenges and Opportunities of Hybrid Dendritic Nanocarriers.
abstract: Dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers are emerging polymer architectures that attract increasing attention due to their unique topological structure and interesting physicochemical properties. Their enormous potential makes them particularly attractive to form new and fascinating nanometric drug delivery systems, solving several typical shortcomings encountered in nanomedicine.
  
  
  
  In this context, the recent developments of dendritic and hyperbranched based systems, together with their application as nanocarriers, have been comprehensively reviewed.
  
  
  
  This review highlights how the structural complexity can be taken as an evolution parameter of these nanosystems, starting with hyperbranched polymers and evolving to more complex structures such as hybrid dendritic- inorganic nanoparticles and dendronized nano-objects hierarchically designed. Finally, future directions and perspectives in this promising field are briefly discussed.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ingeniería de Procesos y Química Aplicada (IPQA), CONICET. Departamento de Química Orgánica. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Córdoba. Argentina.
authors.forename: Guido Noé
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Rimondino
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico Química de Córdoba (INFIQC), CONICET. Departamento de Físico-Química. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Córdoba. Argentina.
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Oksdath-Mansilla
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico Química de Córdoba (INFIQC), CONICET. Departamento de Físico-Química. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Córdoba. Argentina.
authors.forename: Verónica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Brunetti
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ingeniería de Procesos y Química Aplicada (IPQA), CONICET. Departamento de Química Orgánica. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Ciudad Universitaria, X5000HUA, Córdoba. Argentina.
authors.forename: Miriam Cristina
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Strumia
mesh_terms: D050091:Dendrimers / Q000737:chemistry*; D004337:Drug Carriers; D006801:Humans; D050997:Nanomedicine
chemical_list: D050091:Dendrimers; D004337:Drug Carriers
keywords: Nanocarriers; dendrimers; drug delivery.; hybrid nanoparticles; hyperbranched nano-objects; hyperbranched polymers