Dendrimers and the development of new complex nanomaterials for biomedical applications

New nano-scale drug carriers offer the possibility of increasing the therapeutic index of drug molecules by increasing their effectiveness, diminishing their toxicity against physiological tissues and achieving controlled therapeutic levels for a prolonged time. This review gives an overview of approaches to the development of these novel complex nanocarriers with emphasis on those involving dendrimers and related systems. The combination of two of more nano-sized units for producing an overall system with unique properties could be advantageous compared to more simple nanotechnology-based carriers. Recent advances in medicinal chemistry offer the possibility of exact tailoring of the properties of such complex systems which, in conjunction with full physicochemical characterization, may lead to novel and highly effective drug products. An assessment is given of the potential of systems such as chimeric advanced Drug Delivery nano Systems (chi-aDDnSs) for the delivery of drugs compared with conventional carriers. Rational synthesis of molecules that can act as modulators of the properties of chi-aDDnSs and may be the future in the design and development of nanocarriers, not only for the delivery of drug molecules but also for genetic material and imaging agents is sought.