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may be made of gold, silver, Fe 2 O 3 , metal alloys, etc. while the core is
surrounded by a functional ized linker or ligands (aliphatic chain, PEG, dextran
or mixture thereof) to increase drug delivery specifity (Parak, W. J. Chem.
Soc. Rev,, 2008, 37, 1896 - 1908).
Carbon nanotubes belong to the family of fullerenes and are formed of coaxial
graphite sheets rolled up into cylinders, in the form of single (one graphite
sheet) or multi-walled concentric nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes can also be
rendered water soluble by surface functionalization (Pilizu, S. et a/., J. Nanosci.
Nanotechnol., 2006, 6, 1883-1904).
Suitable polymers, which may be used as the Z scaffold comprise both artificial
and natural polymers. For instance, artificial polymers include poly(ethylene
glycol)(PEG), poly(amidoamine), poly(propyleneamine) (POPAM),
poly(propyleneimine) (PPI), etc., while natural polymers include peptides,
oligopeptides and sugars, such as, for instance, dextran, cellulose, etc.
Other suitable scaffolds may be aromatic based, ethylene diamine based or
propylene diamine based.
In particular, in a preferred embodiment, the Z scaffold is a polyester dendron
based on 2,2'-bis(methoxyol)propanoic acid (bis-MPA), such as
the dendron
or is a first or second or higher generation dendrimer based on 2,2'-
bis(methoxyol)propanoic acid (bis-MPA) such as