Functional Nanomaterials for Drug Delivery and Pharmaceutical Applications

A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanomedicine and Nanotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 August 2024) | Viewed by 4540

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China
Interests: advanced material-based nanosystem; cell therapy; transdermal drug delivery

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Guest Editor
Department of Pharmaceutics, Wuya College of Innovation, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China
Interests: prodrug; nanomedicine; drug delivery

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past decades, the development of novel functional nanomaterials for biomedical applications has attracted much attention. Nanomaterials can be composed of nanostructures such as nanoparticles, nanocapsules, nanotubes, and nanosheets. Due to their nanoscale size, nanomaterials can move easily in tissues and cells and are considered to be an emerging and promising drug delivery system.

Typical nano-based delivery vehicles include liposomes, micelles, dendrimers, inorganic vectors, nanogels and nanoemulsions, whereas novel nanocarriers also contain biomimetic reconstituted high-density lipoproteins (rHDL), exosomes, and hybrid nanoparticles that come from the mixture of nanomaterials. Furthermore, as important constituents of nano-based drug delivery systems, various nanomaterials such as organic nanomaterials, inorganic nanomaterials, and hybrid nanomaterials have been intensively explored in pharmaceutical fields, including drug formulation, drug/gene delivery, controlled release, and targeted therapy.

In this Special Issue, we aim to collect submissions that focus on the investigation of “Functional Nanomaterials for Drug Delivery and Pharmaceutical Applications”. Original research articles and reviews are welcome. We also encourage the submission of papers including in vitro and in vivo evidence and clinical data on nanomedicine and nanotechnology fields.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Wei Wang
Prof. Dr. Cong Luo
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • nanomaterials
  • nanotechnology
  • liposome
  • drug/gene delivery
  • targeted therapy
  • in vitro and in vivo
  • nanomedicine
  • pharmaceutics
  • cancer therapy

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 1813 KiB  
Article
Development and Pharmacokinetic Evaluation of Novasomes for the Trans-nasal Delivery of Fluvoxamine Using Arachidonic Acid-Carboxymethyl Chitosan Conjugate
by Saima Gulshan, Shahid Shah, Pervaiz Akhtar Shah, Muhammad Irfan, Malik Saadullah, Ghulam Abbas, Muhammad Hanif, Akhtar Rasul, Nabeel Ahmad, Abid Mahmood, Ejaz Basheer, Mohammad Omer Habib, Hadil Faris Alotaibi, Ahmad J. Obaidullah, Jawza F. Alsabhan and Osama l. Alwassil
Pharmaceutics 2023, 15(9), 2259; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics15092259 - 31 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1567
Abstract
Depression is the major mental illness which causes along with loss of interest in daily life, a feeling of hopelessness, appetite or weight changes, anger and irritability. Due to the hepatic first-pass metabolism, the absolute bioavailability of fluvoxamine (FVM) after oral administration is [...] Read more.
Depression is the major mental illness which causes along with loss of interest in daily life, a feeling of hopelessness, appetite or weight changes, anger and irritability. Due to the hepatic first-pass metabolism, the absolute bioavailability of fluvoxamine (FVM) after oral administration is about 50%. By avoiding the pre-systemic metabolism, nasal delivery would boost bioavailability of FVM. Additionally, the absorption is anticipated to occur more quickly than it would via the oral route because of the existence of microvilli and high vasculature. A nonionic surfactant, cholesterol and an arachidonic acid-carboxymethyl chitosan (AA-CMCS) conjugate were used to develop FVM-loaded novasomes. To investigate the effects of surfactant concentration, AA-CMCS conjugate concentration and stirring speed on the novasomes’ characteristics, a Box–Behnken design was used. The dependent variables chosen were zeta potential, polydispersity index and particle size. The AA-CMCS conjugate was confirmed by 1H-NMR and FTIR. Using Design Expert software (version 7; Stat-Ease Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA), novasomes were further optimized. The chosen optimal formulation (NAC8) was made up of AA-CMCS conjugate, Span 60 and cholesterol. Particle size, zeta potential and PDI values for NAC8 formulation were 101 nm, −35 mV and 0.263, respectively. The NAC8 formulation’s DSC and TGA analysis demonstrated that the medication had been uniformly and amorphously distributed throughout the novasomes. The NAC8 formulation showed 99% and 90% FVM release and permeation, respectively, and the novasome adherence time was 24 h. An improved antidepressant effect along with five-fold increase in bioavailability of FVM was observed after trans-nasal administration of NAC8 formulation compared to the reference commercially available Flumin® tablets. FVM-loaded novasomes administered via the nasal route may therefore constitute an advancement in the management of depression. Full article
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16 pages, 7942 KiB  
Article
Reduction-Hypersensitive Podophyllotoxin Prodrug Self-Assembled Nanoparticles for Cancer Treatment
by Xinhui Wang, Yuequan Wang, Jiaxin Yu, Qian Qiu, Rui Liao, Shenwu Zhang and Cong Luo
Pharmaceutics 2023, 15(3), 784; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics15030784 - 27 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2304
Abstract
Podophyllotoxin (PPT) has shown strong antitumor effects on various types of cancers. However, the non-specific toxicity and poor solubility severely limits its clinical transformation. In order to overcome the adverse properties of PPT and explore its clinical potential, three novel PTT−fluorene methanol prodrugs [...] Read more.
Podophyllotoxin (PPT) has shown strong antitumor effects on various types of cancers. However, the non-specific toxicity and poor solubility severely limits its clinical transformation. In order to overcome the adverse properties of PPT and explore its clinical potential, three novel PTT−fluorene methanol prodrugs linked by different lengths of disulfide bonds were designed and synthesized. Interestingly, the lengths of the disulfide bond affected the drug release, cytotoxicity, pharmacokinetic characteristics, in vivo biodistribution and antitumor efficacy of prodrug NPs. To be more specific, all three PPT prodrugs could self-assemble into uniform nanoparticles (NPs) with high drug loading (>40%) via the one-step nano precipitation method, which not only avoids the use of surfactants and cosurfactants, but also reduces the systemic toxicity of PPT and increases the tolerated dose. Among the three prodrug NPs, FAP NPs containing α-disulfide bond showed the most sensitive tumor-specific response and fastest drug release rate, thus demonstrating the strongest in vitro cytotoxicity. In addition, three prodrug NPs showed prolonged blood circulation and higher tumor accumulation. Finally, FAP NPs demonstrated the strongest in vivo antitumor activity. Our work will advance the pace of podophyllotoxin towards clinical cancer treatment. Full article
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