Recent advances in nuclear medicine have explored nanoscale carriers for targeted delivery of various radionuclides in specific manners to improve the effect of diagnosis and therapy of diseases. Due to the unique molecular architecture allowing facile attachment of targeting ligands and radionuclides, dendrimers provide versatile platforms in this filed to build abundant multifunctional radiolabeled nanoparticles for nuclear medicine applications. This review gives special focus to recent advances in dendrimer-based nuclear medicine agents for the imaging and treatment of cancer, cardiovascular and other diseases. Radiolabeling strategies for different radionuclides and several challenges involved in clinical translation of radiolabeled dendrimers are extensively discussed.
Keywords: PET; SPECT; dendrimers; nuclear medicine; radiolabeling; radionuclide therapy.