Advances in Peptide Delivery: Strategies, Formulations, and Therapeutic Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Peptides represent a rapidly expanding class of therapeutic agents, offering high potency, specificity, and generally favorable safety profiles compared to small molecules. Their potential spans a wide range of applications, including oncology, metabolic diseases, infectious diseases, and central nervous system disorders. However, the inherent limitations of peptides—such as poor metabolic stability, short plasma half-life, and low membrane permeability—pose significant challenges to their effective delivery and clinical translation.

This Special Issue aims to highlight the latest breakthroughs in overcoming these formidable delivery barriers, while also exploring the application of peptide materials in the field of organoid research. We invite contributions that explore innovative strategies to enhance the stability, bioavailability, and targeted delivery of peptide therapeutics, as well as cutting-edge research on peptides as organoid scaffold materials. Key areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the rational design of stable peptide analogs, the development of advanced formulation platforms (e.g., nanoparticles, liposomes, hydrogels, and implants), the application of novel technologies for non-invasive administration (e.g., oral, transdermal, and pulmonary delivery), and research on peptide-based organoid scaffold materials (including bionic scaffold design, the coordinated delivery of scaffolds and peptide therapeutics, the regulation of organoid growth microenvironments by scaffolds, and the evaluation of scaffold biocompatibility and in vivo degradability).​

Furthermore, we welcome research on cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs), peptide–drug conjugates,, stimuli-responsive delivery systems that enable precise spatial and temporal control over peptide release, and the application of peptide scaffold-supported organoid models in disease simulation, drug screening, and regenerative medicine. Manuscripts centered on novel evaluation models (e.g., in silico screening and prediction models based on computational pharmaceutics, virtual organ simulation systems) for the early assessment of peptide drug stability, permeability, and in vivo performance, alongside in vitro models for permeability assessment, in vivo pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) studies, clinical trials verifying the efficacy of emerging peptide delivery systems, and clinical translation research on peptide scaffold-based organoid models are especially encouraged for submission.

By bringing together cutting-edge research and comprehensive reviews, this Special Issue seeks to provide a valuable resource for scientists and clinicians working at the intersection of pharmaceutical technology, chemical biology, and medicine, ultimately accelerating the development of the next generation of peptide-based therapeutics.

Prof. Dr. Qi Xiang
Guest Editor

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Bioengineering 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 2700 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.