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Chemical and Physical Characterization of Serum Albumin Nanocarriers and Applications in Nanomedicine

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 2634

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico San Matteo, Nuclear Medicine Unit, I-27100 Pavia, Italy
Interests: radiopharmaceuticals; radioactive tracers; nuclear medicine radiolabeling; new PET imaging radionuclides
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Guest Editor
National Center of Oncological Hadrontherapy (Fondazione CNAO), 27100 Pavia, Italy
Interests: radiobiology; hadrontherapy; migration; cell biology; cell signalling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since 2005, a tremendous increase in published papers related to albumin nanocolloid or nanoparticles has occurred, with approximately 900 articles in these fields being published annually in Pub Med.  Bovine serum albumin (BSA) is the most widely used serum due to its low cost, abundance and easy purification, whereas human serum albumin (HSA) is used to prevent immunological responses.

Albumin is a versatile protein carrier extensively used for drug delivery, and albumin-based nanocarriers are proven to enhance the biostability and bioavailability of many compounds, maintaining a safe and efficient delivery.

Albumin is specifically used to target tumor tissue, essentially through two mechanisms. The first mechanism is passive and is related to enhanced penetration and retention, which is less effective in humans compared to rodents. The second mechanism is active and targets obtained loading recognition ligands to achieve a specific binding to target cells and selective drug delivery.

These approaches are not just limited to oncological applications; other fields of medicine are involved, such as vaccines, infectious diseases and many others.

HSA nanocolloids were and are extensively used in nuclear medicine for sentinel lymph node detection; beyond 99mTc, other nuclides, such as PET emitters and non-radioactive labels, have been proposed, including fluorescent and optoacoustic signals in a multimodality approach. HSA nanocarriers loaded with recognition ligands and nuclides for imaging and internal radiotherapy are the new frontier for this kind of theranostic agent.

Dr. Carlo Aprile
Dr. Lorenzo Lodola
Dr. Angelica Facoetti
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • albumin nanocarriers
  • HSA nanocolloids
  • nanomedicine
  • theranostic agent
  • Nano HSA, molecular imaging
  • radiolabeled nanoparticles

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

11 pages, 440 KiB  
Review
Challenges in Preparation of Albumin Nanoparticle-Based Radiopharmaceuticals
by James R. Ballinger
Molecules 2022, 27(23), 8596; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27238596 - 6 Dec 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2143
Abstract
Albumin nanocolloids have been used as radiopharmaceuticals for more than 40 years. Their main use is in lymphoscintigraphy and the detection of the sentinel lymph node as part of the surgical treatment of a variety of solid tumours. The main licensed products are [...] Read more.
Albumin nanocolloids have been used as radiopharmaceuticals for more than 40 years. Their main use is in lymphoscintigraphy and the detection of the sentinel lymph node as part of the surgical treatment of a variety of solid tumours. The main licensed products are labelled with the gamma emitter technetium-99m. Recently, two analogues labelled with positron emitters have been reported, using gallium-68 and zirconium-89. For about 10 years, there has been interest in dual-modal agents with both radioactive and fluorescent labels to improve the localisation of the sentinel lymph node. Indocyanine green (ICG) has been the most widely used fluorescent label, largely due to its availability as a licensed agent and its ease of application. The further development of alternative radiolabels or improved fluorescent tags will require investment in the development and licensing. There is also a vast potential for the targeting of albumin nanocolloids using existing strategies, which could be promising for the development of both diagnostic and therapeutic agents. Full article
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