Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
9.0
4.9
Journals
IJMS
Special Issues
Micro-Nano Materials for Drug Delivery and Disease Treatment
ijms-logo
Submit to Special Issue Submit Abstract to Special Issue Review for IJMS Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Micro-Nano Materials for Drug Delivery and Disease Treatment

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Nanoscience".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 1493

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Maoquan Chu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Interests: nanoparticles; drugs; living cells or bacteria; targeted delivery; cancer therapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Natural and synthetic micro/nanoscale materials for drug delivery and disease treatment have attracted great attention worldwide in the past few decades. Fundamental research has demonstrated that the diagnosis and therapy efficiencies of diseases could be improved as the concentration of drugs (e.g., chemotherapy drugs, diagnostic reagents) in lesions are usually significantly enhanced by these biomaterials. More and more novel micro-nano materials with unique properties have been developed by researchers for the diagnosis and therapy of cancers, diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and other diseases. However, up to now, only a very small portion of micro-nano materials have been successfully applied in clinical practices. For this reason, this Special Issue aims to highlight the most recent scientific advances in the research of micro/nanoscale materials-based drug delivery and disease (cancer, diabetes, etc.) treatment.

Prof. Dr. Maoquan Chu
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 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. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. 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.

Keywords

  • biomaterials
  • nanoparticle-loaded bacterial cells
  • nanoparticle-loaded cells
  • bioimaging and diagnosis
  • therapy

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

16 pages, 7348 KB  
Article
A Bioactive Lipid Nanoparticle Integrating Arachidonic Acid Enables High-Efficiency mRNA Delivery and Potent CAR-Macrophage Engineering
by Jia Fu, Yanan Zhang, Yifan Lv, Ruilin Li, Hongchen Gu and Jingxing Yang
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(18), 9199; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26189199 - 20 Sep 2025
Viewed by 113
Abstract
Genetic engineering of macrophages, particularly for chimeric antigen receptor macrophage (CAR-M) therapy, holds great promise for immunotherapy, yet is constrained by the challenge of efficient gene delivery into primary macrophages, which are notoriously resistant to transfection. While conventional strategies focus on optimizing the [...] Read more.
Genetic engineering of macrophages, particularly for chimeric antigen receptor macrophage (CAR-M) therapy, holds great promise for immunotherapy, yet is constrained by the challenge of efficient gene delivery into primary macrophages, which are notoriously resistant to transfection. While conventional strategies focus on optimizing the physicochemical properties of lipid nanoparticles (LNP), they often fail to overcome the intrinsic biological barriers of these cells. Here, we introduced a “bioactive nanocarrier” paradigm, hypothesizing that incorporating a cellular modulator directly into LNP structure can synergistically overcome these barriers. We designed and synthesized a novel LNP by integrating the pro-inflammatory fatty acid, arachidonic acid (ARA), as a functional structural component (ARA-LNP). Systematic optimization of the ARA content and mRNA payload revealed a formulation that achieves high transfection efficiency (83.76%) in primary M2-polarized bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs), a cell type that recapitulates pro-tumoral phenotype in the tumor microenvironment. Leveraging this advanced delivery platform, we successfully generated HER2-targeting CAR-M that demonstrated potent and specific phagocytic activity against HER2-expressing tumor cells in vitro. This work presents a powerful strategy where the nanocarrier itself transiently modulates the target cell state to enhance gene delivery, providing a new design principle for engineering macrophages and other hard-to-transfect immune cells for therapeutic applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Nano Materials for Drug Delivery and Disease Treatment)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

39 pages, 6702 KB  
Review
Exosome-like Nanoparticles Extracted from Plant Cells for Diabetes Therapy
by Xin Xiao, Yuliang Guo, Nontokozo Zimbili Msomi, Md. Shahidul Islam and Maoquan Chu
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(18), 9155; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26189155 - 19 Sep 2025
Viewed by 151
Abstract
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a complex metabolic disorder characterized by chronic hyperglycemia and associated complications such as cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, retinopathy, neuropathy, and chronic non-healing wounds. Current antidiabetic therapies offer only partial glycemic control and are limited by poor bioavailability, adverse effects, and [...] Read more.
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a complex metabolic disorder characterized by chronic hyperglycemia and associated complications such as cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, retinopathy, neuropathy, and chronic non-healing wounds. Current antidiabetic therapies offer only partial glycemic control and are limited by poor bioavailability, adverse effects, and an inability to prevent disease progression. Plant-derived exosome-like nanoparticles (PENPs) have emerged as a promising class of natural nanocarriers with excellent biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, and intrinsic multi-component bioactivity. However, few reviews have addressed recent progress in PENPs for DM therapy. To capture the recent developments in this area, this review provides a systematic synthesis of recent advances in PENPs for DM therapy, covering plant sources, extraction and purification methods, molecular compositions, and therapeutic mechanisms. Preclinical studies have demonstrated that PENPs can improve hyperglycemia, enhance insulin sensitivity, regulate hepatic lipid metabolism, and promote wound healing by modulating oxidative stress, inflammation, gut microbiota, glucose metabolism, and insulin signaling. Additionally, PENPs have been shown to promote angiogenesis via glycolytic reprogramming. Despite these promising findings, challenges including scalable isolation, standardized physicochemical characterization, and clinical translation remain. Future directions include engineering multifunctional PENPs, establishing Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-compliant production, and conducting clinical trials to facilitate their integration into precision therapeutics for diabetes management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Nano Materials for Drug Delivery and Disease Treatment)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

28 pages, 3523 KB  
Review
Nanoliposomes as Effective Vehicles of Antioxidant Compounds in Food and Health
by Jonathan García-Morales, Diana Fimbres-Olivarría, Ricardo Iván González-Vega, Ariadna Thalía Bernal-Mercado, Santiago Pedro Aubourg-Martínez, Karla Alejandra López-Gastélum, Miguel Ángel Robles-García, José de Jesús Ornelas-Paz, Saúl Ruiz-Cruz and Carmen Lizette Del-Toro-Sánchez
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(12), 5523; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26125523 - 9 Jun 2025
Viewed by 1089
Abstract
Nanoliposomes have increased exponentially since their discovery in the 1960s, primarily for encapsulating medicines or compounds that can improve human health. However, recent studies propose nanoliposomes as vehicles to protect, transport, and subsequently release compounds of various kinds to fortify the properties of [...] Read more.
Nanoliposomes have increased exponentially since their discovery in the 1960s, primarily for encapsulating medicines or compounds that can improve human health. However, recent studies propose nanoliposomes as vehicles to protect, transport, and subsequently release compounds of various kinds to fortify the properties of foods and cause a prolonged release of encapsulated substances in a specific part of the body. Among the compounds successfully encapsulated are β-carotene; α-carotene; vitamins A, C, and D; and lycopene, among others. The encapsulation of extracts with high contents of antioxidant pigments is still to be explored. Therefore, this review aims to compile the compounds that have been successfully encapsulated and have met the specific prolonged release criteria, highlighting areas of research opportunity and application such as biomedical, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical industries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Micro-Nano Materials for Drug Delivery and Disease Treatment)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop