Cyclodextrins for Drug/iRNA Co-Delivery
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Macromolecules".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 50
Special Issue Editors
Interests: nanomedicine; polymer micelles; cancer therapy; gene delivery; NMR spectroscopy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
2. REQUIMTE/LAQV, Galenic and Pharmaceutical Technology Laboratory, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, 3000-548 Coimbra, Portugal
Interests: polymeric micelles; micelleplexes; controlled release; gene therapy; cancer; nanotechnology; cyclodextrins; mucoadhesive polymers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Cyclodextrins are well-known excipients used in a number of clinically approved formulations. They are biocompatible and biodegradable cyclic oligosaccharides with a hydrophilic exterior and hydrophobic cavity which can be used to encapsulate hydrophobic molecules. The inclusion of chemotherapeutics is widely studied as a means of improving dissolution rate, physicochemical stability, bioavailability, and therapeutic duration. The presence of the outer hydroxy groups enables derivatization, which expands the usefulness of cyclodextrins as carriers of therapeutic molecules. CDs can be used as components of delivery systems as a functional drug reservoir/linker/hydrophilic tail, and various examples where CDs were linked with self-assembling polymers/dendrimers or were used as part of polyrotaxane systems were described. Alternatively, CDs can be functionalized into amphiphilic molecules with the property of self-assembly. The addition of a cationic component to amphiphilic CDs provides the opportunity to bind different types of therapeutic nucleic acids (NAs) through electrostatic interactions. The latter general strategy has already been explored for the delivery of pDNA and iRNA molecules, and hydrophilic, hydrophobic/ionic moieties, and their combinations have been introduced into the primary and secondary faces of CDs. Some of these self-assembling amphiphilic CDs demonstrated interesting efficacy in NA delivery. However, there have been few attempts to optimize the structure–activity relationship so far, containing only a small library of derivatized CDs, which leaves room for the further optimization of transfection, safety, and therapeutic parameters. Additionally, most of these attempts were oriented towards the delivery of NA therapeutics, neglecting the opportunity provided by the hydrophobic pocket for the inclusion of hydrophobic chemotherapeutics/imaging molecules, and examples of drug/NA co-delivery by functionalized self-assembling CDs are extremely rare.
This Special Issue aims to compile the most recent advances in the application of cyclodextrins for drug/iRNA co-delivery, with a particular focus on their encouraging applications in new drug formulations and the regulation of the immune system.
Hence, we invite researchers to submit original research work or review manuscripts that present up-to-date data on the application of cyclodextrins for drug/iRNA co-delivery on cancer prevention and management.
Dr. Ivana Jarak
Dr. Ana Figueiras
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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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. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
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Keywords
- advanced therapies
- antibody-based therapies
- active and passive tumor targeting
- cancer
- conventional chemotherapy
- immune system
- immunotherapy
- immunotoxicity
- nanomedicine
- nanoparticles
- nanotoxicity
- tumor immune microenvironment (TIME)
- tumor microenvironment (TME)
- cyclodextrins
