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Abstract
Transdermal drug delivery offers a number of advantages over systematic administrations such as oral administration and intravenous injection. However, most therapeutic agents are limited in transdermal delivery due to the presence of a stratum corneum barrier. A number of chemical penetration enhancers were used to facilitate the penetration of drugs with poor skin permeability across the barrier, but these enhancers are usually associated with safety concerns such as skin irritation and immune response. The current patent application by Hong et al. provides the potential use of surface-engineered dendrimers for transdermal delivery of therapeutic agents. It systemically demonstrates the effect of dendrimer generation, surface chemistry and hydrophobicity on the skin permeability of dendrimers. The most efficient dendrimer shows nearly 30% skin permeation when its surface was conjugated with endoxifen, a drug widely used for the treatment of breast cancers. The described technique provides an efficient and safe method for the delivery of therapeutic agents, especially chemopreventive compounds and anticancer drugs.
Declaration of interest
The authors were supported by the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (No. 20120076110021) and the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of Ministry of Education of China (NCET-11-0138). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.