Bio-Metallodendrimers - Emerging Strategies in Metal-Based Drug Design

The field of biomedical metallodendrimers is an emerging discipline that is attracting prolific attention. Metallodendrimers, like their organic counterparts, are known for their multivalency (high concentration of peripheral end-groups), well-defined architectures and narrow polydispersity. These are characteristics that make metallodendrimers well-suited as innovative scaffolds for the development of new therapeutic agents. Coupled with the surge of interest in the use of various metal complexes to treat various diseases, the application of metallodendrimers in medicinal chemistry is an attractive strategy for therapies involving macromolecules and the advancement of new metal-based therapeutics. In this review, we describe the progress made in the application of metallodendrimers as scaffolds for drug delivery, as metal-based drugs in their own right, and as agents for biosensing, photothermal and photodynamic therapy.