Potential of Dendrimers as Nanocarriers for Brain Drug Delivery

It is well known that the human blood–brain barrier (BBB) prevents most drugs from entering the CNS (central nervous system), and so numerous neurological diseases go untreated. Numerous nanocarriers have been developed during the past few decades to carry medications to the brain. Dendrimers are nanomaterials that have drawn the most attention because of their uniform size, ease of functionalization, and accessibility to internal cavities. Dendrimers have been used to deliver a variety of active molecules, including small molecules, peptides, and genes, while reducing their cytotoxicity and increasing their efficacy for the treatment of various CNS diseases. The tight BBB, which limits the entry of medications or therapeutic agents, makes it difficult to treat neurological disorders like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, brain injury, meningiomas, etc. The main reasons for breaching the BBB are advantages, such as flexibility, biocompatibility, ability to load drugs into the core or surface, and ligand conjugation ability of dendrimers. The efficacy of dendrimers, either alone or drug-loaded, in treating several CNS illnesses has been demonstrated in a small body of research and is thoroughly discussed in this chapter.