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Bacterial infections are one of the major threats to human health due to the raising crisis of antibiotic resistance. Herein, second generation antibacterial heterofunctional dendrimers based on 2,2-bis(methylol)propionic acid were synthesized. The dendrimers possessed six alkenes and 12 ammonium end-groups per molecule and were used to fabricate antibacterial hydrogels together with dithiol-functional polyethylene glycol (mol wt of 2, 6 and 10 kDa) as crosslinkers via thiol-ene chemistry. The network formation can be completed within 10 s upon UV-irradiation as determined by the stabilization of the storage modulus in a rheometer. The hydrogels swelled in aqueous media and could be functionalized with the N-hydroxysuccinimide ester of the dye disperse red 13, which allowed for visually studying the degradation of the hydrogels through the hydrolysis of the ester bonds of the dendritic component. The maximum swelling ratio of the gels was recorded within 4–8 h and the swelling ratios increased with higher molecular weight of the polyethylene glycol crosslinker. The gel formed with 10 kDa polyethylene glycol crosslinker showed the highest swelling ratio of 40 and good mechanical properties, with a storage modulus of 8 kPa. In addition, the hydrogels exhibited good biocompatibility towards both human fibroblasts and mouse monocytes, while showing strong antibacterial activity against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.

In recent years innovative nanostructures are attracting increasing interest and, among them, dendrimers have shown several fields of application. Dendrimers can be designed and modified in plentiful ways giving rise to hundreds of different molecules with specific characteristics and functionalities. Biomedicine is probably the field where these molecules find extraordinary applicability, and this is probably due to their multi-valency and to the fact that several other chemicals can be coupled to them to obtain desired compounds. In this review we will describe the different production strategies and the tools and technologies for the study of their characteristics. Finally, we provide a panoramic overview of their applications to meet biomedical needs, especially their use as novel antimicrobials.