Silica Nanoparticles Enhanced Drug Delivery

Dear Colleagues,

Nanomedicine is an innovative and successful method of delivering drugs or therapeutic agents to a targeted region for biomedical applications. Among various nanoplatforms, silica nanoparticles are extensively studied, owing to their adaptability, tunability, and versatility. Therapeutic and diagnostic/theranostic applications for silica nanoparticles highlight them as a better choice from a huge library of metallic, polymeric, and lipid-based nanoparticles. Biocompatibility/low toxicity, stability, large surface area, tunable porosity, higher loading and sustained release of cargoes, and scopes of functionalization/modification are the traits that make them promising nanocarriers for therapeutic agents, along with their application as imaging agents for diagnostic purposes. These nanoparticles are intensely studied for combination and targeted anticancer therapy and other biomedical applications, accredited to the higher safety (inhibition adverse effects of conventional therapies) and escalating efficacy. Chemotherapy, immunotherapy, imaging-guided nano-delivery, and a combination of these are the major approaches for silica-based enhanced drug delivery, with the modes of passive targeting (via enhanced permeation and targeting effect to mostly cancer), active targeting (with ligand-based functionalization for cellular receptor targeting), and stimuli-responsive and enhanced targeting/release.

This Special Issue will highlight the recent developments in the field of silica-based nanoplatforms for therapeutic and diagnostic biomedical applications. The current Issue invites authors to submit all types of original articles, communications, and review papers involving silica nanoparticles for theranostic biomedical purposes.

Dr. Kishwor Poudel
Dr. Asmita Banstola
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. Pharmaceuticals 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.

• silica
• nanoparticles
• drug delivery
• biomedical applications
• cancer therapy
• targeted delivery
• nanocarriers
• sustained release
• stimuli-responsive nanosystems
• theranostics