Cancer Diagnosis

Dendrimers have a highly branched three-dimensional structure with not only a large number of terminal functional units and internal cavities, but also low viscosity and high biocompatibility. These characteristics make dendrimers have great potential for biomedical applications such as drug delivery, gene therapy, tissue engineering, immunoassay and bioimaging. In recent years, dendrimers have been rapidly developing in biomedical fields, especially in cancer diagnostics, for use as imaging probes or imaging reporters and for capturing cancer markers.

Methods for Cancer Diagnosis

Cancer diagnosis methods include diagnostic imaging, laboratory testing (tumor marker testing), tumor biopsy, endoscopy, surgery, or genetic testing. With the development of new instruments and technologies, diagnostic imaging has made great strides to better detect cancer and help patients avoid surgery. Imaging is the process of producing valuable pictures of body structures and organs that can be used to detect tumors and other physical abnormalities, determine the extent of disease, and assess the effectiveness of treatment. Imaging can also be used when performing biopsies and other surgical procedures. Three types of imaging are currently used for cancer diagnosis, including transmission imaging, reflectance imaging and emission imaging.

Dendrimers in Cancer Diagnosis

Cancer is an aggressive disease with high morbidity and mortality. Early and accurate diagnosis of cancer is of great benefit to cancer treatment. Dendrimers are used as imaging agents for cancer diagnosis because of their high functional group density, many internal cavities and three-dimensional structure. As a promising nano platform for cancer diagnosis in vitro and in vivo, the following issues need to be addressed in the construction of efficient, stable, and relatively safe dendrimer imaging agents.

• How to achieve high retention and strong contrast of dendrites in the tumor region
• How to introduce various imaging agents
• How to achieve rapid clarity of nanoscale dendrimers in vivo
• How to reduce the residues of dendrimers and imaging agents in normal tissues
• How to avoid the formation of protein corona on the surface of dendrimers

Advantages of Dendrimers in Cancer Imaging Diagnosis

The inherent physicochemical properties of dendrimers give them unique advantages in cancer diagnosis, which can be useful for early cancer diagnosis, tracking tumor characteristics, aggressiveness, specificity, and prognosis.

• For in vitro cancer diagnosis, the highly branched 3D structure of dendrimers and multiple functional groups allow for increased unit area of capture detectors, increased density, and the ability to bind to cancer markers.
• For in vivo cancer diagnosis, the high biocompatibility and low viscosity of dendrimers provide the basis for in vivo applications. In addition, their structural cavities and high-density end groups facilitate efficient encapsulation of various imaging agents in a physical or chemical manner.

Dendrimers nano-scale systems for in vitro diagnosis of cancer. (Poellmann MJ, et al., 2018)

Dendrimers show great potential in cancer diagnostics, where their multiple functional groups can be modified by targeting ligands or coupled to imaging reporters for tumor-specific detection. In addition, the nanoscale size of dendrimers helps to penetrate deep into the tumor and obtain comprehensive information about the entire tumor or tissue. Current techniques based on dendrimer imaging agents that can be used for cancer diagnosis include.

How We Can Help

With our advanced technology platform and extensive experience, CD BioSciences provides innovative dendrimer products and high quality services to passionate researchers worldwide. Our dedicated scientists will address each of your specific needs and overcome all obstacles in your dendrimer project. If you are interested in our services or have any other questions, please feel free to contact us.

Reference

1. Poellmann MJ.; et al. Immunoavidity-Based Capture of Tumor Exosomes Using Poly(amidoamine) Dendrimer Surfaces. Nano Lett. 2020, 20: 5686-5692.