Applications of Dendrimers in Biomedicine, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanomedicine and Nanotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2025) | Viewed by 1990

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Preclinical Department, Faculty of Medicine, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 2A Lucian Blaga St., 550169 Sibiu, Romania
Interests: natural products; drug delivery; analytical methods; biochemistry; laboratory tests; antioxidants; dendrimers; pharmacovigilance
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Guest Editor
Department of Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6 L. Pasteur Street, 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Interests: safety evaluation; nanotoxicity; oxidative stress biomarkers; toxicokinetics; analysis of toxicants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Preclinical Department, Faculty of Medicine, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 2A Lucian Blaga St., 550169 Sibiu, Romania
Interests: dendrimers; drug delivery; nanocosmetics; cosmetic formulation; safety and efficacy of cosmetics; natural products; cosmetovigilance; nutrivigilance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Preclinical Department, Faculty of Medicine, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 2A Lucian Blaga St., 550169 Sibiu, Romania
Interests: natural products; phytochemical analyses; antioxidants; polyphenols; environmental sciences; dendrimers; drug delivery; nutrivigilance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Preclinical Department, Faculty of Medicine, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 2A Lucian Blaga St., 550169 Sibiu, Romania
Interests: natural products; antioxidants; phytochemicals; nutrivigilance; toxicology; dendrimers; drug delivery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Dendrimers are synthetic polymers characterized by branched repeating units that emerge from a focal point and possess a large number of exposed anionic, neutral or cationic terminal functionalities on the surface. They are nanometric molecules that are radially symmetric, globular, mono-dispersed, and homogenous.

The term “dendrimer” is a combination of two Greek words, “dendron” and “meros”, which translate to “tree” and “parts”, respectively, thus explaining their branched structure. In 1941, Flory published the original concept of branched molecules, and the first dendrimers were synthesized by Vögtle et al. in 1978. Initially, dendrimers were obtained based on divergent synthesis methods; later, convergent methods for obtaining dendritic structures were used.

Biomedicine represents one of the main study areas for dendrimers, which have proven valuable both in diagnostics and therapy due to their capacity for improving solubility, absorption, bioavailability, and targeted distribution.

Many studies were performed in order to demonstrate the high potential of dendrimers as drug carriers in different pathologies such as cancer, diabetes, infections, inflammation, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular conditions, etc. Dendrimers are also studied in regenerative medicine (e.g., wound healing, tissue and cartilage reconstruction, bone remineralization, etc.) and the cosmetics industry. Furthermore, dendrimers have applications in diagnosis, resulting in improved imaging agents.

In the present Special Issue, manuscripts covering aspects from the entire field such as synthesis, characterization methods, molecular simulations, regulatory, biological or clinical studies, potential applications in biomedicine, pharmacokinetics improvement, toxicity reduction, etc., are encouraged.

Prof. Dr. Felicia Gabriela Gligor
Prof. Dr. Felicia Loghin
Dr. Claudiu Morgovan
Dr. Anca Maria Juncan
Dr. Adina Frum
Dr. Carmen Maximiliana Dobrea
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • dendrimers
  • dendritic polymers
  • nanostructures
  • carriers
  • synthesis
  • characterization
  • imaging agents
  • regenerative medicine
  • nanomedicine
  • cosmetics
  • drug delivery
  • biological properties
  • drug therapy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 2668 KiB  
Article
ROS–Responsive Ferrocenyl Amphiphilic PAMAM Dendrimers for On–Demand Delivery of siRNA Therapeutics to Cancer Cells
by Peng Chen, Zhihui Wang, Xinmo Wang, Junni Gong, Ju Sheng, Yufei Pan, Dandan Zhu and Xiaoxuan Liu
Pharmaceutics 2024, 16(7), 936; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics16070936 - 13 Jul 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1350
Abstract
Small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapeutics, characterized by high specificity, potency, and durability, hold great promise in the treatment of cancer and other diseases. However, the clinic implementation of siRNA therapeutics critically depends on the safe and on–demand delivery of siRNA to the target [...] Read more.
Small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapeutics, characterized by high specificity, potency, and durability, hold great promise in the treatment of cancer and other diseases. However, the clinic implementation of siRNA therapeutics critically depends on the safe and on–demand delivery of siRNA to the target cells. Here, we reported a family of ferrocenyl amphiphilic dendrimers (Fc-AmDs) for on–demand delivery of siRNA in response to the high ROS content in cancer cells. These dendrimers bear ROS–sensitive ferrocene moieties in the hydrophobic components and positively chargeable poly(amidoamine) dendrons as the hydrophilic entities, possessing favorable safety profiles and ROS responsive properties. One of these ferrocenyl amphiphilic dendrimers, Fc-C8-AmD 8A, outperforms in siRNA delivery, benefiting from its optimal balance of hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity. Its ROS feature facilitates specific and efficient disassembly of its complex with siRNA in ROS–rich cancer cells for effective siRNA delivery and gene silencing. Moreover, Fc-C8-AmD 8A also integrates the features and beneficial properties of both lipid and dendrimer vectors. Therefore, it represents a novel on–demand delivery system for cancer cell–specific siRNA delivery. This work opens new perspectives for designing self–assembly nanosystems for on–demand drug delivery. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Dendrimers in Biomedicine, 2nd Edition)
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