近日华东师范大学生命科学学院的研究人员在国际刊物《化学会评论》 （影响因子20.1, Chemical Society Reviews, 2011, 40, 2673-2703）上发表了题为“Design of Biocompatible Dendrimers for Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy: Current Status and Future Perspectives”（设计生物相容性树枝形分子用于癌症诊断及治疗：现状与前景）的综述性论文。
华东师范大学生命科学学院程义云教授为该论文的第一作者及通讯作者，该课题获得了华东师范大学“英才计划”启动经费的资助。
在过去的几十年里，纳米医药为改善疾病治疗及诊断，革新传统的卫生保健及医学技术带来了新希望。基于树枝形分子的治疗策略日益成为纳米医药与生物材料领域的研究热点，特别是在癌症的诊断和治疗领域。将抗癌药物包装至或偶联到树枝形分子上转导至肿瘤中可提高纳米颗粒的渗透性和延长代谢时间。将显像剂例如MRI造影剂、放射性核素标签、计算机X线断层摄影术造影剂、荧光染料与多功能纳米医学相结合可同时实现癌症诊断及靶向性治疗。然而直到现在人们对于以树枝形分子为基础的治疗是否和其他纳米医学一样具有长期的存活力及生物相容性并不了解。
在这篇综述中作者针对用于癌症诊断和治疗的生物相容性树枝形分子的设计策略进行了综述。针对树枝形分子的生物相容性特性例如纳米毒性作用、长期循环及降解进行了讨论。并提出通过聚乙二醇化修饰（PEGylation）、乙酰化作用、糖基化作用及氨基酸功能化等方法构建包含生物相容性成分的新型树枝形分子，表面修饰商业购买的树枝形分子作为解决以树枝形分子为基础的纳米治疗安全问题的策略。此外，作者还对癌症诊断和治疗中基于树枝形分子的纳米治疗的发展及挑战进行了综述。
程义云教授一直致力于树枝形分子的药物输送系统的设计及优化，在提高这类大分子材料的生物相容性方面，取得了一系列的研究成果。继2010年加入华东师范大学以来先后在美国化学会的权威刊物Journal of the American Chemical Society 和Journal of Physical Chemistry B发表该领域相关研究论文7篇。此次程义云教授在《化学会评论》发表的论文是对该课题组前期工作以及国际相关研究成果的总结，并提出了多个能够有效提高树枝形分子生物相容性的策略，具有重要的科学意义。
据了解，目前该课题组正在以树枝形分子为核心制备一系列用于癌症诊断和治疗的纳米药物，并希望最终将这些纳米药物应用于临床治疗，提高传统抗癌药的疗效以及诊断灵敏度，降低毒副作用，使得癌症病人能够真正从纳米材料和纳米技术中获益。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Chemical Society Reviews DOI: 10.1039/C0CS00097C
Design of biocompatible dendrimers for cancer diagnosis and therapy: current status and future perspectives
Yiyun Cheng, Libo Zhao, Yiwen Li and Tongwen Xu
In the past decade, nanomedicine with its promise of improved therapy and diagnostics has revolutionized conventional health care and medical technology. Dendrimers and dendrimer-based therapeutics are outstanding candidates in this exciting field as more and more biological systems have benefited from these starburst molecules. Anticancer agents can be either encapsulated in or conjugated to dendrimer and be delivered to the tumour via enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect of the nanoparticle and/or with the help of a targeting moiety such as antibody, peptides, vitamins, and hormones. Imaging agents including MRI contrast agents, radionuclide probes, computed tomography contrast agents, and fluorescent dyes are combined with the multifunctional nanomedicine for targeted therapy with simultaneous cancer diagnosis. However, an important question reported with dendrimer-based therapeutics as well as other nanomedicines to date is the long-term viability and biocompatibility of the nanotherapeutics. This critical review focuses on the design of biocompatible dendrimers for cancer diagnosis and therapy. The biocompatibility aspects of dendrimers such as nanotoxicity, long-term circulation, and degradation are discussed. The construction of novel dendrimers with biocompatible components, and the surface modification of commercially available dendrimers by PEGylation, acetylation, glycosylation, and amino acid functionalization have been proposed as available strategies to solve the safety problem of dendrimer-based nanotherapeutics. Also, exciting opportunities and challenges on the development of dendrimer-based nanoplatforms for targeted cancer diagnosis and therapy are reviewed (404 references).
