Anticancer Drug Delivery

Anticancer drug delivery refers to the use of drug delivery systems to selectively deliver anticancer drugs to cancer cells, while minimizing their toxicity to healthy tissues. The primary goal of anticancer drug delivery is to improve the therapeutic index of anticancer drugs, which is the ratio of their therapeutic efficacy to their toxicity. Dendrimers are highly branched and symmetric macromolecules with a core, shell, and surface functional groups that offer several advantages for drug delivery applications, including anticancer drug delivery.

Systems for Anticancer Drug Delivery

Traditional anticancer drugs suffer from several limitations, including poor solubility, rapid clearance, and nonspecific distribution in the body. These limitations can result in suboptimal drug concentrations at the tumor site, leading to reduced efficacy and increased toxicity to healthy tissues. Therefore, drug delivery systems have been developed to overcome these limitations and improve the efficacy of anticancer drugs.

• Liposomes
  One of the most widely studied drug delivery systems for anticancer therapy is liposomes. Liposomes are spherical, lipid-based vesicles that can encapsulate hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs within their aqueous or lipid bilayer compartments. They have several advantages for anticancer drug delivery, including biocompatibility, biodegradability, and the ability to encapsulate a wide range of drugs.
• Nanoparticles
  Nanoparticles, such as gold nanoparticles, iron oxide nanoparticles, and polymer nanoparticles, have also been investigated for anticancer drug delivery. Nanoparticles can be functionalized with targeting ligands or coated with hydrophilic polymers to improve their targeting specificity and biocompatibility.
• Micelles
  Micelles, which are self-assembling aggregates of amphiphilic molecules, can also be used for anticancer drug delivery. Micelles can encapsulate hydrophobic drugs within their core, while their hydrophilic shell can improve their solubility and biocompatibility.
• Dendrimers
  Dendrimers, as discussed earlier, are highly branched and symmetric macromolecules that can encapsulate drugs within their interior or conjugate them to their surface. Dendrimers have shown promise as drug delivery vehicles for anticancer therapy due to their high drug-loading capacity, targeting specificity, and biocompatibility.

Dendrimers for Anticancer Drug Delivery

• Types of Dendrimers
  Several types of dendrimers have been investigated for anticancer drug delivery, including polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers, poly(propyleneimine) (PPI) dendrimers, and polyethylene glycol (PEG)ylated dendrimers. PAMAM dendrimers are widely studied due to their biocompatibility and ease of synthesis, while PPI dendrimers have been shown to have higher drug-loading capacity and stability. PEGylation of dendrimers can improve their biocompatibility and reduce clearance by the immune system.
  As experts in the study of dendrimers, CD BioSciences not only has innovative dendrimer products, but also offers you a wide range of dendrimer synthesis methods to meet your needs.
• Advantages of Dendrimers as Anticancer Drug Delivery Systems
  In anticancer drug delivery, dendrimers can improve drug solubility, increase drug circulation time, enhance target specificity, and reduce toxicity by encapsulating drugs within their interior or conjugating them to their surface. Additionally, dendrimers can selectively accumulate in cancer cells due to the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, which is a phenomenon in which nanoparticles preferentially accumulate in tumors due to the leaky vasculature and poor lymphatic drainage.

Dendrimers are used for anticancer drug (doxorubicin) delivery. (Rodríguez-Acosta GL, et al., 2022)

• Applications of Dendrimers for Anticancer Drug Delivery
  Dendrimers have emerged as promising tools in the field of anticancer drug delivery. Their unique structural properties, including a highly branched architecture and multiple functional groups, allow for efficient encapsulation and targeted delivery of anticancer drugs. By encapsulating drugs within their core or attaching them to the surface, dendrimers enhance drug solubility, stability, and bioavailability while reducing systemic toxicity. With their versatile design and customizable properties, dendrimers offer exciting opportunities for the development of effective anticancer delivery system.

How We Can Help

As a dendrimer research company, CD BioSciences offers a full range of services from synthesis to applied research to meet the needs of our customers in the materials science and engineering fields. We are able to provide customized products and solutions, as well as efficient service and reasonable pricing, with the confidence to break through almost any challenge in dendrimer research projects. If you are interested in our products or services or have any other questions, please feel free to contact us.

Reference

1. Rodríguez-Acosta GL.; et al. Polymer-dendrimer Hybrids as Carriers of Anticancer Agents. Curr Drug Targets. 2022, 23: 373-392.