Mitochondria-Targeted Drug Conjugates and Nanosized Drug Delivery Systems for Killing, Preserving, or Imaging Mitochondria
A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Drug Delivery and Controlled Release".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2021) | Viewed by 5133
Special Issue Editor
Interests: subcellular organelle-targeted drug delivery; stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems; biomolecule-based polymers and nanomedicine
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Beyond organ-targeting and cell-targeting strategies for effective drug delivery, subcellular organelle targeting has gained huge attention due to its promise of obtaining better therapeutic effects and fewer unwanted concerns. Among various subcellular organelles such as mitochondria, nuclei, cytosol, lysosomes, ER, Golgi, peroxisomes, etc., this Special Issue “Mitochondria-Targeted Drug Conjugates and Nanosized Drug Delivery Systems for Killing, Preserving, or Imaging Mitochondria” will focus on mitochondria because this organelle controls significant cell-death-related signaling and metabolic pathways as well as bioenergy production, and its malfunction and dysfunction cause various disorders such as cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, obesity, liver diseases, etc. Thus, mitochondria are an important drug target for killing drugs (e.g., anti-cancer drugs), health-promoting drugs (e.g., anti-oxidants), and sensing/imaging drugs (e.g., ROS-sensing dyes) to maximize therapeutic effects or visualize/detect mitochondrial characteristics.
Nevertheless, there are still gaps in understanding and designing effective mitochondria-targeted drug delivery systems because of many uncertainties in drugs targeting mitochondria, drug accumulation in the mitochondrial matrix, and drug release in the mitochondrial matrix. Currently, although many systems target mitochondria, it is unclear whether they target the outer mitochondrial membrane, inner mitochondrial membrane, and/or the mitochondrial matrix. Additionally, although some mechanisms (e.g., mitochondrial membrane potentials, mitochondrial affinity, TOM/TIM complexes) are being considered for drug targeting in mitochondria and drug accumulation in the mitochondrial matrix, targeting mechanisms for the mitochondrial membrane and accumulation mechanisms in the mitochondrial matrix should be separately analyzed and understood. Recently, for more specific drug release in the mitochondrial matrix, mitochondrial characteristics such as alkaline pHs, high temperature, high ROS levels, high glutathione levels, ATP, etc. have been applied and investigated.
Thus, this Special Issue of Pharmaceutics titled "Mitochondria-Targeted Drug Conjugates and Nanosized Drug Delivery Systems for Killing, Preserving, or Imaging Mitochondria" will address diverse areas related to mitochondrial drug targeting, drug accumulation in the mitochondrial matrix, drug release in the mitochondrial matrix, mitochondria-targeting moieties, mitochondria-targeting mechanisms, killing mitochondria, preserving mitochondria, imaging mitochondria, etc. Original research papers, communications, or review articles on any of these aspects are welcome for this Special Issue.
Prof. Dr. Han Chang Kang
Guest Editor
Keywords
- mitochondrial drug targeting
- drug accumulation in the mitochondrial matrix
- drug release in the mitochondrial matrix
- mitochondria-targeting moieties
- mitochondria-targeting mechanisms
- killing mitochondria
- preserving mitochondria
- imaging mitochondria
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