Macromolecular Self-Assembly in Therapeutics
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2021) | Viewed by 2586
Special Issue Editor
Interests: biomaterials; drugs; polymers; small-molecule drug and polymer self-assembly; polymeric nanoparticles; polymeric micelles; hybrid ceramic–polymer nanomaterials; pharmaceutical materials science; drug delivery and targeting; mucosal drug delivery; nanomedicine; pediatric cancer
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Self-assembly is the spontaneous and often reversible organization of molecules into supramolecular structures through noncovalent bonds, and it is a ubiquitous phenomenon at different hierarchical levels of biological organization. From small molecules, amino acids, and peptides to carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and genes, self-assembled systems are formed with precision and flexibility and play a key role in the life gestation and maintenance at all levels of evolution, from viruses and bacteria to eukaryotic systems.
Over the years, researchers have been inspired by self-assembled structures in nature and desgined and produced simplified artificial nanostructures with predictable and adjustable properties and utilized them to develop advanced therapeutic systems. Liposomes that mimic the cell membrane structure are a good example of this. They can host a broad spectrum of hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs in the aqueous core and the lipid bilayer and change their biodistribution. The ability to design and adjust molecular properties of polymers such as molecular weight, chain architecture, the blocks’ arrangement along the chain, charge, and hydrophilic–lipophilic balance have led to the development of polymeric micelles and other self-assembled nanoparticles that display hydrophobic and hydrophobic domains. Polyion complex micelles are nanostructures formed through electrostatic interactions between polymers with different charge and the cargo. An advantage of polymeric micelles with respect to conventional ones is that they are much more physically stable and disassemble at a slower rate when the concnetration is below the critical micellar concentration. Polymeric micelles are among the most popular nanotechnology platforms for drug delivery and show great clinical promise. Polymeric micelles are mainly involved to encapsulate hydrophobic cargos, while self-assembled polymeric vesicles (known as polymersomes) resemble the structure of liposomes, and thus, they can encapsulate drugs with different aqueous solubility.
This Special Issue aims to cover the most recent applications of self-assembled macromolecular systems as carriers of small-molecule drugs, proteins, and genes in pharmaceutical research and dveelopment. Submissions are welcome but not limited to the topics listed below. Types of contributions to this Special Isssue can be full research articles, short communications, and reviews focusing on the self-assembled polymeric nanoparticles in therapeutics.
- Liposomes
- Polymeric micelles
- Polymersomes
- Polyelectrolyte complexes
- Stereocomplexes
Prof. Alejandro Sosnik
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- Lipids
- Polymers
- Macromolecular self-assembly
- Drug delivery
- Nanomedicine
