Main description:

Dendrimers are repeatedly branched and roughly spherical large molecules. They can be used in various medical applications, such as anticancer polymeric nanomedicines and nanocarriers, gene carriers and vectors in gene delivery, contrast agents for molecular imaging and vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer. The highly branched, multivalent nature and molecular architecture of dendrimers make them ideal tools for a variety of tissue engineering applications. This book describes different categories of dendrimers, their biomedical and physico-chemical applications as well as convergent and divergent syntheses, click chemistry and ligation strategies. It is a rich source of information for researchers in biochemistry and pharmacology working on drug development as well as for organic chemists who are engaged in synthesis of dendrimers.

Contents:

Introduction.- Chemistry and struture to dendrimers: Definition of terms and nomenclature.- Sugar code (glyco code).- Classes of peptide-, glyco, and glycopeptide dendrimers.- The dendritic state and dendritic effects.- Synthesis of dendrimers: convergent and divergent approaches.- Purification and characterization of dendrimers.- Dendrimeric libraries.- Dendrimers in catalysis.-Dendrimers and their biological and therapeutic applications: Dendrimers and solubility.- Biocompability and toxicity of dendrimers.- Dendrimers in nanoscience and nanotechnology.- Dendrimers in drug delivery.- Dendrimers in gene delivery.-Dendrimers and bacteria.- Dendrimers and viruses.- Dendrimers and parasites.- Cancer.- Diagnostics, lectin detection and cell-cell interactions.- Dendrimers as biosensors and imaging tools.- Dendrimers regulating in intracellular signaling pathways.- Vaccines and immunomodulation.- Dendrimers in neurodegenerative diseases.- Conclusions and persperctives.