Dendritic Polymers for Dermal Drug Delivery

Abstract

Skin-mediated therapeutic delivery is a potential alternative to traditional drug delivery approaches. However, dermal drug delivery is limited to the molecules with optimal physico-chemical properties. To overcome this barrier for delivering ‘nonideal’ drug molecules across the skin, different drug carriers and penetration enhancement methods have been investigated. Conventional chemical and physical approaches for dermal drug delivery are limited by their skin irritation potential, complexity of application and poor patient compliance. In recent years, dendritic polymers have shown potential in improving the dermal delivery of various molecules. With minimal skin irritation potential and high drug loading capacity, dendrimers offer multiple advantages for improving delivery of drugs across the skin. The current review aims to provide an overview of dendritic polymers for dermal (topical and transdermal) drug delivery.

Keywords:

• dendritic polymers
• dendrimer
• permeation enhancer
• skin penetration
• surface charge
• topical
• transcutaneous
• transdermal

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/full/10.4155/tde-2017-0091

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was partially supported by Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. K Dave is currently employed at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The findings and conclusions in this article have not been formally disseminated by the FDA and should not be construed to represent any agency determination or policy. The mention of commercial products, their sources, or their use in connection with material reported herein is not to be construed as either an actual or implied endorsement of such products by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. 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.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.