Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics for Respiratory Diseases
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 37
Special Issue Editor
Interests: cystic fibrosis; ivacaftor; inflammation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Respiratory diseases represent a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In many conditions, such as cystic fibrosis (CF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and infectious lung diseases, dysfunctions at the level of the airway epithelium can lead to mucus accumulation, infection, inflammation, and ultimately, respiratory failure. While patients carrying some mutations in the CFTR gene can benefit from advances such as CFTR modulators, a therapy for orphan CF mutations, as well as other respiratory disorders, is under development through innovative therapeutic strategies. Moreover, in CF as in several other respiratory diseases, airway infections and antibiotic resistance remain major challenges, sustaining chronic inflammation and interfering with the efficacy of current treatments. Molecular therapeutics have been developed in recent years and could be exploited in a variety of respiratory diseases to correct mutations, reduce inflammation, and target pathogens through novel antibacterial and antiviral agents.
A key challenge in respiratory research is the lack of adequate ex vivo and preclinical models. The development of 3D respiratory structures, such as organoids and lung/airway-on-chip systems, has provided new tools for studying lung diseases. These models offer promising platforms for developing novel therapeutic approaches across a broad spectrum of pulmonary conditions and can also support advanced drug delivery studies.
This Special Issue invites original articles and reviews focused on molecular and cellular therapeutic strategies in respiratory diseases, including:
- Molecular or pharmacological correction or modulation of defective proteins;
- Transfection of differentiated airway epithelia;
- Pathogen infection and antibiotic/antiviral resistance;
- Advanced techniques for drug delivery;
- 3D models suitable for drug testing and disease modeling.
Dr. Roberto Plebani
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
- lung diseases
- cystic fibrosis
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- asthma
- drug delivery
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