Design, Development and Biomedical Applications of Hyaluronic Acid-Based Drug and Gene Delivery Systems

A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Gene and Cell Therapy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 731

Special Issue Editors


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School of Pharmacy, Drug Delivery Division, University of Camerino, CHIP Research Center, Via Madonna delle Carceri, 62032 Camerino, MC, Italy
Interests: biomaterials; polymer synthesis; hydrogels; nanoparticles; gene and drug delivery; therapeutics stability
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Guest Editor
1. NorthWest Centre for Advanced Drug Delivery (NoWCADD), School of Health Science, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK
2. Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Interests: drug delivery; nanomedicine; RNA therapeutics; polymeric nanoparticles; lipid nanoparticles; endosomal escape

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Hyaluronic acid (HA) has emerged as a powerful tool in biomedical applications, particularly in drug and gene delivery. Its biocompatibility, biodegradability and ability to interact with receptors such as CD44 make it ideal for targeted delivery strategies. HA-based systems—ranging from nanoparticles to hydrogels—have shown promise in improving therapeutic efficacy, reducing off-target effects, prolonging drug circulation time and enabling precise targeting in cancer and inflammation.

This Special Issue aims to highlight the latest advances in the design and development of HA-based carriers for the delivery of small molecules, nucleic acids and biologics. We invite original research and review articles focusing on the synthesis, functionalization and characterization of HA-based materials, their biological performance and translational potential.

By bringing together innovative approaches in HA engineering and application, this Special Issue will contribute to the growing field of targeted and responsive drug/gene delivery.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Dr. Cristina Casadidio
Dr. Alice Spadea
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • hyaluronic acid
  • targeted drug delivery
  • gene delivery
  • CD44
  • nucleic acid delivery
  • HA conjugates
  • nanoparticles personalized medicine

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

27 pages, 4839 KB  
Article
Advanced Hybrid Polysaccharide—Lipid Nanocarriers for Bioactivity Improvement of Phytochemicals from Centella asiatica and Hypericum perforatum
by Ioana Lăcătusu, Mihaela Bacalum, Diana Lavinia Stan, Ovidiu-Cristian Oprea, Mihaela Neagu, Georgeta Alexandru, Mihaela Prisacari and Nicoleta Badea
Pharmaceutics 2026, 18(1), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics18010048 - 30 Dec 2025
Viewed by 496
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Phytochemicals are known to be active contributors to a healthy life, providing valuable wound healing benefits. Methods: This research took an innovative approach that successfully overcame the bioavailability limits of herbal extracts, by entrapping CentellaA with HypericumP in nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Phytochemicals are known to be active contributors to a healthy life, providing valuable wound healing benefits. Methods: This research took an innovative approach that successfully overcame the bioavailability limits of herbal extracts, by entrapping CentellaA with HypericumP in nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) and hybrid hyaluronic acid (HA-NLCs) as valuable formulations with enhanced bioactivity. Results: NLCs and HA-NLCs showed excellent entrapping efficiency values for CentellaA and HypericumP ranging from 89.5 to 95.3%. Co-entrapping of CentellaA:HypericumP in a weight ratio of 4:1 and 2:1 led to diameters of 221.4 ± 2.08 nm for NLC-CentellaA-HypericumP and 220.3 ± 1.74 nm for hybrid HA-NLC-CentellaA-HypericumP. The bimodal calorimetric profile of NLCs contributed to a lower degree of lipid core structural organization. HA-NLC-CentellaA showed the safest biocompatibility behavior with BJ skin cells. Conclusions: The cells treated with NLC-CentellaA exhibited a favorable scratch wound closure and promoted the fastest BJ cell migration. NLC- and HA-NLC herbal extracts remodeled the cytoskeleton of BJ fibroblast cells. The morphological fluorescence changes revealed that the fibroblast cells retained intact their cytoskeleton, characteristic of a viable cell with no obvious stress. An active motility of cells treated with NLCs in the wound area was detected, indicating strong pro-migratory properties; e.g., for NLC-CentellaA, the wound was almost closed after 30 h. Designing NLCs with HA adaptability to reinforce the skin wound healing action represents a desired step for the development of herbal products that meets the challenge of combining the benefits of phytochemicals and nanotechnology to create value-added herbal products. Full article
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