Functional Nanomaterials for Drug Delivery in Photodynamic Therapy

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 April 2025 | Viewed by 1224

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Biotechnologies and Life Sciences, University of Insubria, Via JH Dunant 3, 21100 Varese, Italy
Interests: photobiology; organic chemistry; photodynamic therapy; biocatalysis; metal nanoparticles; natural exctracts
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Biotechnology and Life Sciences, University of Insubria, Via Jean Henry Dunant 3, 21100 Varese, Italy
Interests: photodynamic therapy; drug delivery; photosensitizers; BODIPYs; porphyrins; tumor and cell penetrating peptides; photobiology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In this Special Issue, we aim to provide particular attention to functional nanomaterials for drug delivery in photodynamic therapy (PDT).

PDT is a particularly appealing anticancer approach that relies on the simultaneous presence of three non-toxic components (photosensitizer or PS, light, and molecular oxygen). In the presence of oxygen, only irradiation triggers the production of reactive oxygen species. The intrinsic selectivity of PDT, due to the negligible cytotoxicity in the absence of light and oxygen, has prompted efforts from the scientific community to identify strategies and further enhance the selectivity of PS for cancer cells.

Drug delivery (nano)systems have demonstrated significant potential in increasing the solubility of hydrophobic drugs, improving biodistribution and pharmacokinetics, and allowing preferential accumulation. Thus, over the years, PSs have been conjugated with different nanomaterials to maximize their selectivity/specificity in target cells.

In this Special Issue, we aim to collect research articles and reviews that address the latest advances in using functional nanomaterials for targeted PDT.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Enrico Caruso
Dr. Miryam Chiara Malacarne
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • nanomaterials
  • drug delivery systems
  • photodynamic therapy
  • targeted therapies
  • third-generation photosensitizers
  • targeting agents

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 2411 KiB  
Article
Reactive Oxygen Species-Regulated Conjugates Based on Poly(jasmine) Lactone for Simultaneous Delivery of Doxorubicin and Docetaxel
by Jyoti Verma, Vishal Kumar, Carl-Eric Wilen, Jessica M. Rosenholm and Kuldeep K. Bansal
Pharmaceutics 2024, 16(9), 1164; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics16091164 - 3 Sep 2024
Viewed by 777
Abstract
In cancer therapy, it is essential to selectively release cytotoxic agents into the tumor to prevent the adverse effects associated with anticancer drugs. Thus, in this study, a stimuli-sensitive polymer–drug conjugate was synthesized for selective drug release. Doxorubicin (DOX) and docetaxel (DTX) were [...] Read more.
In cancer therapy, it is essential to selectively release cytotoxic agents into the tumor to prevent the adverse effects associated with anticancer drugs. Thus, in this study, a stimuli-sensitive polymer–drug conjugate was synthesized for selective drug release. Doxorubicin (DOX) and docetaxel (DTX) were conjugated onto novel poly(jasmine lactone) based copolymer via a thioketal (TK) linker. In addition, a photosensitizer (chlorin e6) was attached to the polymer, which served as a reactive oxygen species generator to cleave the TK linker. The conjugate is readily self-assembled into micelles less than 100 nm in size. Micelles demonstrate a notable increase in their ability to cause cell death when exposed to near-infrared (NIR) light on MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. The increase in cytotoxicity is higher than that observed with the combination of free DOX and DTX. The accumulation of DOX in the nucleus after release from the micelles (laser irradiation) was also confirmed by confocal microscopy. In the absence of light, micelles did not show any toxicity while the free drugs were found toxic irrespective of the light exposure. The obtained results suggest the targeted drug delivery potential of micelles regulated by the external stimuli, i.e., NIR light. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Nanomaterials for Drug Delivery in Photodynamic Therapy)
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