Potential of the Aptamers to Fill Therapeutic and Diagnostic Gaps

Dear Colleagues,

We are glad to invite authors to submit original manuscripts in the field of medicinal aptamers. Aptamers are short, functional oligonucleotides able to recognize, in a specific way, a wide variety of molecular targets. These targets range from ions or small compounds to whole viruses or even cells. Aptamers are isolated from selection experiments, either in vitro, ex vivo, or both, by virtue of their affinity and specificity for the desired target. Such properties are intrinsically related to the aptamer three-dimensional folding, which operates as a template to guide the identification of a precise target, in a similar way to the key and lock model described for protein enzymes.

The potential of aptamers as molecular tools in multiple areas, such as food safety or environmental preservation, has been largely proposed. However, major investigations in the aptamers field are related to their biomedical exploitation, thus opening a new exciting field for the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic aptamers-based strategies. Moreover, they have enabled significant advances in basic research.

This Special Issue aims to collect both review and original research articles that present the current state-of-the-art of aptamers in clinics, either as diagnostic or therapeutic agents. Reports on technology applications for the development of aptamers-based diagnostic platforms are also welcome. Their invaluable contribution to biomedical investigations can also be discussed.

Dr. Cristina Romero-López
Dr. Alfredo Berzal-Herranz
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.