Branched and Dendritic Polymer Architectures: Functional Nanomaterials for Therapeutic Delivery

Abstract

Barriers to therapeutic transport in biological systems can prevent accumulation of drugs at the intended site, thus limiting the therapeutic effect against various diseases. Advances in synthetic chemistry techniques have recently increased the accessibility of complex polymer architectures for drug delivery systems, including branched polymer architectures. This article first outlines drug delivery concepts, and then defines and illustrates all forms of branched polymers including highly branched polymers, hyperbranched polymers, dendrimers, and branched–linear hybrid polymers. Many new types of branched and dendritic polymers continue to be reported; however, there is often confusion about how to accurately describe these complex polymer architectures, particularly in the interdisciplinary field of nanomedicine where not all researchers have in‐depth polymer chemistry backgrounds. In this context, the present review describes and compares different branched polymer architectures and their application in therapeutic delivery in a simple and easy‐to‐understand way, with the aim of appealing to a multidisciplinary audience.

Tailoring polymer dispersity and shape of molecular weight distributions: methods and applications

“…[6][7][8] However, the discoveries of anionic 9 and cationic 10 polymerisation as well as controlled radical polymerisation methodologies including atom transfer radical polymerisation (ATRP), 11,12 reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerisation 13 and nitroxide mediated polymerisation (NMP) 14 have enabled the synthesis of well-dened macromolecules with controlled molecular weight, architecture, end-group delity and dispersity. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] In fact, the high end-group delity and the controlled nature of the polymerisation is typically conrmed by low dispersity values and as such dispersities in the range of Đ z 1.01-1.20 are routinely targeted. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] Conversely, broader molecular weight distributions (Đ > 1.4) are oen considered to be a sign of uncontrolled or "failed" polymerisation and necessitate additional optimisation to reduce the dispersity.…”

Effects of Polymer 3D Architecture, Size, and Chemistry on Biological Transport and Drug Delivery In Vitro and in Orthotopic Triple Negative Breast Cancer Models

“…Hyperbranched polymers were chosen as the initial architecture of materials to investigate based on their known potential for tumor targeting and uptake in vivo. [61,62] Further to this, larger architectures were proposed, namely star, high molecular weight linear and core-crosslinked micellar polymers. A combination of nondegradable hyperbranched and redoxresponsive architectures were synthesized through parallel synthetic routes in order to access a wide size range of materials from 5 to 60 nm with multiple stimuli-responsive mechanisms of degradation, depicted in Scheme 1.…”

Cathepsin B-responsive and gadolinium-labeled branched glycopolymer-PTX conjugate-derived nanotheranostics for cancer treatment

“…Compared with linear ones, branched polymers have a high branched topological structure, a high density of functional groups, a nanoscale size and internal cavities 29 . Especially, functional branched polymers can be prepared via one-pot synthesis of RAFT polymerization, and their structures and functions can be optimized via selecting and manipulating cross-linking agents and monomers, so they have great application potential as multifunctional polymer delivery systems 30 . Additionally, depending on the choice of tumor microenvironment-responsive cross-linking agents and functionalized side chain groups, the stimuli-responsive branched polymers-based nanoscale drug delivery systems can be achieved with strong EPR effect for negatively-targeting tumors and good biocompatibility.…”