How to take PAMAM Dendrimers?

[nrguidelines]

I can visualize what it looks like to take oral or intravenous antibiotics... but still don't know what using a dendrimer actually involves.

Is it a substance added to an injection? I have no idea.

Asking because there's literature about putting antibiotics in dendrimers as a way to cure drug-resistant infections.

The question is what does using a dendrimer actually involve, AND how do patients even get access to dendrimers?

[StringJunky]

Dendrimers are specially designed molecules that can carry a therapeutic substance to specific sites in the body because they will only attach to molecule sites they were designed for. It's a way of fine-tuning a drugs selection of attachable sites. For example, a normal chemotherapy drug will affect anything and everything in the body that will react with it in an indiscriminate manner, whereas when attached to a dendrimer it will only lock to malignant sites or cells. 

Quote

Drug delivery systems for cancer chemotherapy are employed to improve the effectiveness and decrease the side-effects of highly toxic drugs. Most chemotherapy agents have indiscriminate cytotoxicity that affects normal, as well as cancer cells. To overcome these problems, new more efficient nanosystems for drug delivery are increasingly being investigated. Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers are an example of a versatile and reproducible type of nanocarrier that can be loaded with drugs, and modified by attaching target-specific ligands that recognize receptors that are over-expressed on cancer cells.   https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352940718301641

You get access to them by being appropriately prescribed  them, as determined by a medical professional.

[nrguidelines]

6 hours ago, StringJunky said:

Dendrimers are specially designed molecules that can carry a therapeutic substance to specific sites in the body because they will only attach to molecule sites they were designed for. It's a way of fine-tuning a drugs selection of attachable sites. For example, a normal chemotherapy drug will affect anything and everything in the body that will react with it in an indiscriminate manner, whereas when attached to a dendrimer it will only lock to malignant sites or cells. 

You get access to them by being appropriately prescribed  them, as determined by a medical professional.

There's a lot of literature about dendrimers being used on chronic bacterial infections, which are needed because of resistance to antibiotics without the extra nanomedicine.

I've just never heard of any patient being prescribed a dendrimer for antibacterial reasons. Only for chemotherapy like you said. There must have been some people prescribed it for bacteria though? Especially since all this research exists.

[Strange]

2 hours ago, nrguidelines said:

There must have been some people prescribed it for bacteria though? Especially since all this research exists.

Not if it is still in the research stage. It can take decades to go from lab research to a drug being available for treatment 

[StringJunky]

@hypervalent_iodine might have some knowledge of this subject.

3 minutes ago, Strange said:

Not if it is still in the research stage. It can take decades to go from lab research to a drug being available for treatment 

They are still in the research stage. This paper is 2017:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5372558/

[hypervalent_iodine]

There are several ways by which dendrimers can be employed in drug discovery platforms. I believe the OP is referring to encapsulation, which is a common strategy used, for example, in overcoming permeability issues that one might encounter with gram negative bacteria. I am not familiar with the landscape, but if dendritic formulations aren’t commercially available yet it is because they are still in development, or they are no longer being pursued for whatever reason. As mentioned, it generally takes many years and a lot of money and research and more money before a drug or a new formulation makes it to market.