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Special Issue "Development of Responsive Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapy 2.0"

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 July 2021).

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to reopen the Special Issue concerning “Development of Responsive Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapy” due to the high interest received in the previous edition from scholars, researchers and scientists.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide with over 10 million cases each year. All typical treatments for malignant tumours (e.g., surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and hyperthermia) have severe limitations that should be adequately addressed. The use of nanoscale polymeric systems can solve some specific problems, such as, for example, the low specificity or the short blood circulation of drugs used in chemotherapy. Efficient drug encapsulation, the protection capability of the payload from the immune system, specific targeting to tumour sites, enhanced cell penetration, stimuli-sensitivity for drug delivery and live-cell imaging are some of the inherent potentials associated with the use of nanoparticles. The previous Special Issue showed different specific and interesting examples about the use of plasmonic nanoparticles, magnetic liposomes, montmorillonite nanocomposites, uracil-functionalized micelles, ruthenium dendrimers and nanoparticles, based on functionalized graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, aragonite, hydroxyapatite, gold and iron oxide that merit being expanded or complemented.

This new Special Issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences will pursue the discussion and presentation of recent advances in the design of nanoparticles for cancer treatment. Furthermore, the issue will provide a comprehensive view of recent developments in Polymer chemistry in cancer treatment.

Prof. Dr. Jordi Puiggalí
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • nanoparticles
  • liposomes
  • polymersomes
  • micelles
  • surface functionalization
  • cell targeting
  • stimuli-sensitivity
  • drug delivery
  • therapeutic applications
  • diagnostic applications
  • cancer treatment

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Structural and Functional Characterizations of Cancer Targeting Nanoparticles Based on Hepatitis B Virus Capsid
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(17), 9140; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22179140 - 24 Aug 2021
Viewed by 315
Abstract
Cancer targeting nanoparticles have been extensively studied, but stable and applicable agents have yet to be developed. Here, we report stable nanoparticles based on hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) for cancer therapy. HBcAg monomers assemble into spherical capsids of 180 or 240 subunits. [...] Read more.
Cancer targeting nanoparticles have been extensively studied, but stable and applicable agents have yet to be developed. Here, we report stable nanoparticles based on hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) for cancer therapy. HBcAg monomers assemble into spherical capsids of 180 or 240 subunits. HBcAg was engineered to present an affibody for binding to human epidermal growth factor receptor 1 (EGFR) and to present histidine and tyrosine tags for binding to gold ions. The HBcAg engineered to present affibody and tags (HAF) bound specifically to EGFR and exterminated the EGFR-overexpressing adenocarcinomas under alternating magnetic field (AMF) after binding with gold ions. Using cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM), we obtained the molecular structures of recombinant HAF and found that the overall structure of HAF was the same as that of HBcAg, except with the affibody on the spike. Therefore, HAF is viable for cancer therapy with the advantage of maintaining a stable capsid form. If the affibody in HAF is replaced with a specific sequence to bind to another targetable disease protein, the nanoparticles can be used for drug development over a wide spectrum. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development of Responsive Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapy 2.0)
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