Cell Penetrating Peptides: Novel Therapeutic Tools for Drug Delivery
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pharmacology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 99
Special Issue Editor
Interests: peptidology; drug delivery system; membrane-activate peptides; molecular biology; microbiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The development of drug delivery systems has increased interest lately due to their functions on therapeutic efficacy enhancement, side effect reductions, patient compliance improvement, and advancements in disease management. Among all drug delivery systems, organic, such as peptide-based, drug delivery systems are regarded as potent tools because of their natural properties. However, not all peptides can serve as a drug delivery system. Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have shown considerable promise in drug delivery for their high biomembrane penetration efficiency. Versatile cargo, such as small molecules, nucleic acids, peptide nucleic acids (PNAs), fluorophores, nanoparticles, drugs, and proteins/peptides, can be transported into cells by CPPs, leading to broad medication applications. The targets for CPPs penetration are a wide spectrum. They include mammalian single cells, multiple cells like organoids and tissue, plant tissues/cells, fish and insect cells, yeasts, paramecia, rotifers, and even the prokaryotes, including Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria, and archaea. Compared to traditional drug delivery methods, CPPs exhibit high and often receptor-independent cellular uptake and the ability to cross barriers like the Blood–Brain Barrier (BBB). CPPs are extensively studied for drug delivery applications in diseases like cancer, diabetes, and genetic disorders. This Special Issue plans to give an overview of the advances and frontiers of CPPs. It also plans to collect research and review papers studying CPP designs, property analyses, and their biomedical applications.
Dr. Betty Revon Liu
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- cell-penetrating peptides
- peptide design
- drug delivery
- controlled and release
- clinical applica-tions
- penetration mechanisms
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