Newkome. The second group called synthesized macromolecules ‘arborols’ means, in Latin, ‘trees’. Dendrimers might also be called ‘cascade molecules’ , but this term is not as much established GSK461364 as ‘dendrimers’ [2–4]. Dendrimers are nearly monodisperse macromolecules that contain symmetric branching units built around a small molecule or a linear polymer core [5–7]. ‘Dendrimer’ is only an architectural motif and not a compound. Polyionic dendrimers do not have a click here persistent shape and may undergo changes in size, shape, and flexibility as a function of increasing generations [8–10]. Dendrimers are hyperbranched macromolecules with a carefully tailored architecture, the end-groups (i.e.,

the groups reaching the outer periphery), which can be functionalized, thus modifying their physicochemical or biological properties [11–16]. Dendrimers have gained a broad range of applications in supramolecular chemistry, selleck products particularly in host-guest reactions and self-assembly processes. Dendrimers are characterized by special features that make them promising candidates for a lot of applications. Dendrimers are highly defined artificial macromolecules, which are characterized by a combination of a high number of functional groups and a compact molecular structure [17]. The emerging

role of dendritic macromolecules for anticancer therapies and diagnostic imaging is remarkable. The advantages of these well-defined materials make them the newest class of macromolecular nano-scale delivery devices [18]. Dendritic macromolecules tend to linearly increase in diameter and adopt a more globular shape with increasing dendrimer generation. Therefore, dendrimers have

become an ideal delivery vehicle candidate Aspartate for explicit study of the effects of polymer size, charge, and composition on biologically relevant properties such as lipid bilayer interactions, cytotoxicity, internalization, blood plasma retention time, biodistribution, and filtration [19] (Figure 1). Figure 1 Schematic representation of a generation G4 dendrimer with 64 amino groups at the periphery. This dendrimer starts from an ethylene diamine core; the branches or arms were attached by exhaustive Michael addition to methyl acrylate followed by exhaustive aminolysis of the resulting methyl ester using ethylene diamine [20]. Structure and chemistry The structure of dendrimer molecules begins with a central atom or group of atoms labeled as the core. From this central structure, the branches of other atoms called ‘dendrons’ grow through a variety of chemical reactions. There continues to be a debate about the exact structure of dendrimers, in particular whether they are fully extended with maximum density at the surface or whether the end-groups fold back into a densely packed interior [21, 22].