ABSTRACT
The development of performance efficient and safe drug carriers for various purposes, such as reduced toxicity, controlled release, and targeted delivery, is an active area of research among pharmaceutical and biomedical scientific communities. Amphiphilic dendrimers reported so far are structural modifications of conventional dendrimers, or completely novel dendrimers synthesized using hydrophobic and hydrophilic chemical structures. These amphiphilic dendrimers have been reported to self-assemble into nanostructures, such as micelles, unimolecular micelles, spherical aggregates, nanospheres and supramolecular aggregates, which can encapsulate a drug molecule. With advancements in synthetic chemistry, tailor made amphiphilic dendrimers, which can self-assemble into different structures such as vesicles, dendrimersomes and onion-like structures, are possible. While stimuli-responsive amphiphilic dendrimers are promising candidates, there is a need to explore and design dual or multi-stimuli responsiveness, such as a combination of pH and enzyme, or pH and temperature.
