Dendritic and Nanostructured Boron Compounds for Cancer Therapy
摘要
Dendrimers are nanostructured, repetitive, and highly branched three-dimensional macromolecules. Adding identical monomers to dendrimers increases their molecular size and weight and forms a new generation. Dendrimers can be synthesized using convergent and divergent methods. Due to their versatile nature and attractive nanostructure, they have been extensively researched for various applications. Most prominently, dendrimers have gained attention as nanocarriers for drug delivery systems. They can entrap drugs in three main locations: (1) void, (2) terminal branches, and (3) surface groups. Functional groups can be covalently or noncovalently bonded to dendrimers to increase their target selectivity. Recent advances have explored the role of dendrimers in gene therapy, imaging, contrast delivery, and boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT).