Applications of Dendrimers in Biomedicine, 2nd Edition

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