Editorial [Hot Topic:Biomedical Applications of Dendrimers (Guest Editor: Maria Micha-Screttas)]

E-ISSN： 1873-4294|8|14|1159-1160

ISSN： 1568-0266

Source： Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry, Vol.8, Iss.14, 2008-09, pp. : 1159-1160

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Abstract

There is no doubt that in science in the 21st century, developments in the field of the so-called Nanosciences will feature widely. Nanosciences deal with nanomolecules and their applications, particularly those in materials science and biomedicine. Biomedical applications of nanomolecules can be said to have originated with the development of polymer chemistry and these applications have now been extended with the appearance of dendrimers, the hyperbranched nanomolecules that are considered to be a fourth class of polymers.It is now almost 30 years since the groups of D. Tomalia in the laboratories of Dow Chemicals, F. Vögtle at the University of Bonn and G. Newkome at the University of Louisiana prepared hyperbranched macromolecules that, from the point of view of their structure, exhibited substantial differences from known conventional polymers. These were originally given various names but the term “dendrimer” given by Tomalia to describe these molecules has now become universally accepted.From the beginning of their appearance in the scientific literature, dendritic compounds, due to their unique architecture, have been a very attractive subject for further investigation for many researchers all over the world. The possibility to control their physicochemical properties, as well as other characteristics such as size and shape, by manipulating their chemical composition gave rise initially to a great number of studies related to the development of synthetic methodologies of this new category of chemical compounds and then, very soon afterwards, to the study of their properties and the ways these molecules might be usefully applied.In recent years, research in the field of dendrimers has experienced an exponential development both at an academic and at a technological level and this is a result of the wide range of applications that have been foreseen for them in areas ranging from biomedical to material science. For biomedical applications in particular, the interest in the development of dendrimers as diagnostic and therapeutic tools can be related to their precise architecture which gives them a significant advantage over other generally polydisperse nanoparticles in that there is the possibility of stricter control of their pharmacodynamic profile, while in addition dendrimers are also characterized by their surface multifunctionality which offers the opportunity for multivalent interactions with biological substrates.The present issue of Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry deals with some of the unique aspects associated with recent results regarding the Biomedical Applications of Dendrimers.As an introduction to this collection of articles, Helmut Ringsdorf (Institut fur Organische Chemie, Universität Mainz) and Maria Micha-Screttas (Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, Greece) have undertaken a historical review of the application of nanomolecules, starting with polymers and then dendrimers, to the area of Life Sciences. They present some thoughts and concerns regarding the development of new scientific fields, while at the same time correlating decisive research achievements in the area of chemistry and biology with the subsequent development and application of synthetic macromolecules in the field of biomedicine.The effectiveness of cancer therapeutic approaches depends mainly on diagnosis at an early stage and the specificity of therapeutics agents. In their review, Istvan J. Majoros, Christopher R. Williams, and James R. Baker, Jr. (Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and Biological Sciences, University of Michigan, USA) describe all the new dendrimerbased technologies for diagnosis and therapeutic approaches in the field of oncology.Michelle Longmire, Peter L. Choyke and Hisataka Kobayashi (Molecular Imaging Program, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Maryland, USA) provide an account of the contribution of dendrime