Functional Polymers for Targeted Therapeutics and Gene Delivery
A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Gene and Cell Therapy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2025 | Viewed by 113
Special Issue Editors
Interests: gene therapy; targeted gene delivery; 3D cell culture; targeted anticancer therapy
Interests: functionalization and purification of biopolymers; controlled drug release; active targeting; microparticles and nanoparticles; polymeric micelles; lipid-based nanostructured systems; polycations; gene therapy; imaging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Due to the broad types of available polymers and their possible modifications, polymeric materials play a great role in biomedicine. Polymers can have many applications, serving as materials for implants, antimicrobial agents, scaffolds for cell culture in regenerative medicine, as well as carriers delivering nucleic acids or other drugs. Some types of polymers have been shown to be effective in delivering nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), peptides, and other chemical compounds into mammal and bacterial cells. Especially the potential of some polymers for delivering nucleic acids makes them important non-viral vectors, with great potential for being used in many types of nucleic acid-based therapies. Some types of therapy require concentrations of therapeutic factors only in specified tissues or body regions, avoiding other healthy tissues and organs; therefore, recently, a great effort has been made to establish systems and strategies for targeted nucleic acid delivery. In this type of approach, nucleic acid carriers are coupled with specific factors supporting their affinity for certain types of cells. This can be proteins as ligands or antibodies, chemical compounds as hormones and metabolites, or recently, aptamers. Polymer composition and modifications can influence, in variable ways, its properties, which are important factors conditioning their biological features as well as delivering efficiency, toxicity, and affinity to cell types.
This Special Issue aims to highlight the use of polymers and nanoparticles for targeted nucleic acid delivery for gene therapy as well as in delivering other therapeutic agents in other types of targeted therapies.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Łukasz Sieroń
Dr. Emanuela Craparo
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. Pharmaceutics 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.
Keywords
- polymer
- nanoparticle
- nucleic acid delivery
- targeted therapy
- targeted delivery
- gene therapy
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.
