Fabrication of dendrimers toward biological application

Abstract

Dendrimers consisting of inner core and peripheral shell are well-designed branching architectures with abundant terminal groups. Therefore, the high level of control over dendritic architectures makes dendrimers ideal carriers in biomedical application. In addition, the toxicity of dendrimers mainly comes from the high cationic charge density in the periphery, where charges interact with biological cell membrane and then result in membrane disruption. Two strategies have been utilized to minimize the toxicity of dendrimers: first, selecting neutral or anionic biocompatible dendrimers, and second, masking of peripheral charge by chemical modification. Then the focus of this chapter shifts to biomedical application of biocompatible dendrimers, including drug delivery systems of dendrimers, targeting delivery by dendrimers, and applications of dendrimers for therapy and as imaging agents for inspection.