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Recent Trends in Characterization and Application of Nanomaterials in Drug Delivery

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 4757

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Pharmacy, Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology and Regulatory Affairs, University of Szeged, 6720 Szeged, Hungary
Interests: nanomaterials; nanoparticles; drug delivery; pulmonary drug delivery; nanotechnology; oral drug delivery; polymeric nanostructures

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Pharmacy, Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology and Regulatory Affairs, University of Szeged, 6720 Szeged, Hungary
Interests: nanotechnology; pulmonary dry powder inhalers; micoparticles; spray-drying; nanoparticles
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, nanomaterials have gained interest in the field of drug delivery due to their highly versatile and tunable properties. Nanotechnology is an emerging concept that can be exploited to deliver the drug to various diseases through different routes of administration. Nanomaterials such as polymeric nanocarriers, dendrimers, liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, micelles, and organic nanoparticles can be exploited to enhance the therapeutic profile by improving the solubility of the encapsulated drug and its permeability across biological membranes. Moreover, recent trends in the characterization of nanomaterials have attributed to improved biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, and good pharmacokinetics, along with a controlled/sustained drug release profile.

This Special Issue aims to highlight the recent advances in drug delivery and therapeutics using up-to-date characterization techniques and functional nanomaterials in targeted drug delivery approaches. In this regard, we would like to invite the scientific community to contribute their expertise to this Special Issue in the form of original research or review articles. 

Dr. Mahwash Mukhtar
Prof. Dr. Rita Ambrus
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • nanomaterials
  • polymer synthesis
  • polymeric nanoparticles
  • liposomes
  • nanomaterial chracterization
  • in vitro characterization techniques
  • multifunctional nanomaterials
  • controlled/sustained drug release
  • targeted drug delivery
  • organic nanoparticles

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 3134 KiB  
Article
In vitro Antitumor Properties of Fucoidan-Coated, Doxorubicin-Loaded, Mesoporous Polydopamine Nanoparticles
by Hongping Xu, Junhong Ling, Han Zhao, Xinyi Xu, Xiao-kun Ouyang and Xiaoyong Song
Molecules 2022, 27(23), 8455; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27238455 - 2 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1882
Abstract
Chemotherapy is a common method for tumor treatment. However, the non-specific distribution of chemotherapeutic drugs causes the death of normal cells. Nanocarriers, particularly mesoporous carriers, can be modified to achieve targeted and controlled drug release. In this study, mesoporous polydopamine (MPDA) was used [...] Read more.
Chemotherapy is a common method for tumor treatment. However, the non-specific distribution of chemotherapeutic drugs causes the death of normal cells. Nanocarriers, particularly mesoporous carriers, can be modified to achieve targeted and controlled drug release. In this study, mesoporous polydopamine (MPDA) was used as a carrier for the antitumor drug doxorubicin (DOX). To enhance the release efficiency of DOX in the tumor microenvironment, which contains high concentrations of glutathione (GSH), we used N,N-bis(acryloyl)cysteamine as a cross-linking agent to encapsulate the surface of MPDA with fucoidan (FU), producing MPDA-DOX@FU-SS. MPDA-DOX@FU-SS was characterized via transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and its antitumor efficacy in vitro was investigated. The optimal conditions for the preparation of MPDA were identified as pH 12 and 20 °C, and the optimal MPDA-to-FU ratio was 2:1. The DOX release rate reached 47.77% in an in vitro solution containing 10 mM GSH at pH 5.2. When combined with photothermal therapy, MPDA-DOX@FU-SS significantly inhibited the growth of HCT-116 cells. In conclusion, MPDA-DOX@FU-SS may serve as a novel, highly effective tumor suppressor that can achieve targeted drug release in the tumor microenvironment. Full article
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13 pages, 4294 KiB  
Article
Preparation and Characterization of Simvastatin-Loaded PCL/PEG Nanofiber Membranes for Drug Sustained Release
by Lu Pan, Jiahao Yang and Lan Xu
Molecules 2022, 27(21), 7158; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27217158 - 22 Oct 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2353
Abstract
Simvastatin (SIM) particles are liposoluble drugs with large particle sizes, resulting in poor compatibility with electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL)/polyethylene glycol (PEG) nanofibers, so that part of them will be exposed to the electrospun nanofiber surface, which is easy to cause the burst release of [...] Read more.
Simvastatin (SIM) particles are liposoluble drugs with large particle sizes, resulting in poor compatibility with electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL)/polyethylene glycol (PEG) nanofibers, so that part of them will be exposed to the electrospun nanofiber surface, which is easy to cause the burst release of drugs. Therefore, in this paper, stearic acid (SA) with good biocompatibility was innovatively added to increase the dispersion uniformity of SIM in the spinning solution, thus improving the performances of SIM-loaded PCL/PEG nanofiber membranes (NFMs). Accordingly, the effects of SA addition on the morphologies, mechanical properties, wettability, and drug release properties of the SIM-loaded NFMs were studied. The results showed that after SIM was dissolved in SA solution, the particle size of SIM was significantly reduced and could be evenly dispersed in the polymer spinning solution, thus obtaining the SIM-loaded composite NFMs with the best morphology and performance. Full article
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