The Current Landscape of Nucleic-Acid-Based Drugs
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2024) | Viewed by 8786
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Nucleic acids have emerged as therapeutics or drug carriers, and demonstrated the potential to treat diseases. Nucleic acid therapeutics such as antisense oligonucleotides and small interfering RNA have shown therapeutic effects. The safe and effective delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics into cells to perform gene therapy via sophisticated delivery platforms is becoming increasing attractive.
Besides therapeutics, nucleic acids have also been used to construct nucleic acid nanostructures for drug delivery owing to their predictability and programmability. Some DNA nanostructures can perform structural transformation in response to stimuli. A wave of the design and use of DNA nanostructures as drug carriers to perform complex tasks such as targeted load delivery and the triggered release of loads in response to stimuli has occurred.
However, knowledge and works in these fields are still limited. To achieve a better understanding and exploration of the nucleic-acid-based therapeutics and nanostructures as drug carriers, papers addressing the following aspects are welcome (note that we use the term ‘nucleic-acid-based drugs’ to include all nucleic-acid-based approaches): 1) new nucleic acid therapeutics, platforms for the delivery of nucleic-acid therapeutics, the rationale and key technological aspects for improving their therapeutic effectiveness, and the technologies facilitating their clinical translation. 2) Studies on various DNA nanostructure-based drug delivery systems—their design strategies; the targeting and stimuli-responsive mechanisms of the platforms; their drug release behaviors; and their disease therapeutic effects.
Dr. Zhenbao Liu
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- nucleic acid therapeutics
- DNA nanostructure
- drug delivery platforms
- drug delivery systems
- therapeutic effectiveness
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