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Within the nanoparticle (NP) space, dendrimers are becoming increasingly important in the field of nanomedicine, not only to treat human diseases, but also in veterinary medicine, which represents a new therapeutic approach. Major applications include using dendrimers to tackle highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) and swine fever virus (SFV) in pigs, FMDV in cattle, hypothermic circulatory arrest (HCA) in dogs, rabies, and H9N2 avian influenza virus in chickens. As we review here, intramuscular (im) subcutaneous (sc), intravenous (iv), and intraperitoneal (ip) routes of administration can be used for the successful application of dendrimers in animals., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aptamers are RNA or DNA oligonucleotides interacting to form unique 3D target conformations with high affinity and specificity, and are emerging as a powerful class of ligands for therapeutic applications. In addition, dendrimers are well-defined nano-sized symmetric polymeric molecules. In this review, we provide an analysis of the use of dendrimers modified with aptamers as nonviral vectors to specifically target tumor cells. Various anticancer agents have been encapsulated with dendrimers complexing with aptamers, including epirubicin, camptothecin, Bcl-xL short hairpin (sh)RNA, and 5-fluorouracil rhodamine-labeled dextran. Other types of polymeric nanoparticle (NP)-aptamer bioconjugates have also been developed and loaded with Pt(IV) derivatives, to target specific tumor cells., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In nanomedicine, the widespread concern of nanoparticles in general, and dendrimers, in particular, is the analysis of key in-vivo physicochemical parameters to ensure the preclinical and clinical development of 'safe' bioactive nanomaterials. It is clear that for biomedical applications, biocompatible dendrimers, used as nanocarriers or active per se, should be devoid of toxicity and immunogenicity, and have adequate PK/PD behaviors (adequate exposure) in order to diffuse in different tissues. Functionalization of dendrimers has a dramatic effect on in-vivo physicochemical parameters. In this review, we highlighted key in-vivo physicochemical properties, based on data from biochemical, cellular and animal models, to provide biocompatible dendrimers. Up-to-date, only scarce studies have been described on this topic., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Dendrimers are highly branched, star-shaped macromolecules with nanometer-scale dimensions that can be readily modified with a range of functional groups, thus modifying their physicochemical and biological properties. In nanomedicine, dendrimers can be used as vectors for the targeted delivery strategy of a variety of biologically active agents or can be used as drug per se. In the future, it will be necessary to designate and develop 'safe' dendrimers, which is currently a crucial concern. Here, we analyze the key in vitro physicochemical parameters to be considered for preclinical evaluation of biomedical dendrimers., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

During the past decade, decreasing the attrition rate of drug development candidates reaching the market has become one of the major challenges in pharmaceutical research and drug development (R&D). To facilitate the decision-making process, and to increase the probability of rapidly finding and developing high-quality compounds, a variety of multiparametric guidelines, also known as rules and ligand efficiency (LE) metrics, have been developed. However, what are the 'best' descriptors and how far can we simplify these drug-likeness prediction tools in terms of the numerous, complex properties that they relate to?, (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MIO NPs) bearing different appropriate surface modifications can be prepared using diverse physical and chemical methods. As an ideal macromolecule, dendrimers have attracted considerable attention because of their unique properties, including their three 3D architecture, monodispersity, highly branched macromolecular characteristics, and tunable terminal functionalities. These properties make dendrimers a powerful nanoplatform for the creation of functional organic and/or inorganic hybrid NPs, in particular dendrimer-based MIO NPs. Here, we report on recent advances in the preparation of dendrimer-based MIO NPs for different biomedical applications, such as magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, drug and gene delivery, and protein immobilization., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

For several decades, the pharmaceutical industry has suffered due to major issues such as reductions of the number of FDA approved drugs and biologics. Several analyses have been highlighted that the 'druglikeness' is one of the strategies to improve succeed rates of screening such as, for instance, high-throughput screening (HTS), and then hits (as starting point), leads and clinical candidates. It is clear that the improvement of compound quality accelerates the drug discovery projects. The monitoring of several indices to avoid 'molecular obesity' (ADMET problems) of final drugs from good-quality 'low-fat' starting points represents today a powerful strategy of optimization process. The development of the new guides to find drugs highlighting attempts at improving the attrition rate from hits to final medicines by focusing on how to improve the druggability of hits, leads and drugs during the drug discovery process represents a key approach to design next better generation of medicines., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In the pharmaceutical industry the long-term challenge of drug innovation is the key phrase throughout R&D that refers to increasing the output of original drug candidate molecules. To increase R&D productivity, implementation of new and strategic R&D orientations to develop new approaches or systems to identify hits and leads efficiently has taken place and enabled all scientists working in the drug discovery domain to develop innovative medicines for the 21st century., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)