The 20th Anniversary of Pharmaceuticals – Recent Advances in Hybridization and Bioconjugation for Drug Discovery

Dear Colleagues,

Understanding the appropriate combination of drugs and therapeutic strategies is becoming increasingly important in the treatment of all types of diseases. Thanks to multidisciplinary approaches, it is possible to address the design of new bioactive molecules, not only to improve potency but also to improve their biopharmaceutical properties. The use of several combined therapies or the use of macromolecules to improve the transport and delivery of drugs to the target cell is becoming increasingly common. The numerous possibilities in this field, ranging from the molecular binding of several small molecules (hybridization or conjugation) to the binding to macromolecules (peptides, proteins, nucleic acids, polysaccharides, etc.) (bioconjugation) have led to the development of a great number of new pharmaceuticals.

This Special Issue entitled “Recent advances in hybridization and bioconjugation for drug discovery” aims to cover the advances that are being made in relation to the combination of molecules of any nature to improve their therapeutic properties. Contributions may concern the design and obtaining of novel entities, focusing on the merging of different approaches. Some examples of such approaches could be molecular hybrids based on drugs with different mechanisms of action, multitarget therapies, antibody–drug conjugates, or nanoparticle-based conjugates. Chemical strategies for conjugate coupling as the use of linker modulators or crosslinking agents are also considered, as well as the biological evaluation of the new emerging agents that can demonstrate the connection and synergy between the components of the pharmaceutical entity. Thus, this Special Issue invites all researchers in the pharmaceutical and biological chemical field to publish their outstanding work on hybridization and bioconjugation.  

Dr. Angela Patricia Hernandez
Dr. Mª Ángeles Castro
Guest Editors

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. Pharmaceuticals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2900 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.

• hybridization
• bioconjugation
• pharmaceuticals
• molecular drugs
• biological drugs
• antibody
• nanoparticle
• natural products
• targeted therapies
• drug-delivery systems