Self-Assembled Block Copolymers for Drug Delivery
A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2023) | Viewed by 794
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Nanoparticle-based drug carriers are expected to overcome several limitations associated with conventional dosage forms. Their capabilities to cope with such problems as low drug bioavailability, nonspecific distribution, systemic side effects, low water solubility, rapid biotransformation, or degradation are a powerful driving force for nanopharmacy development. Especially, cancer therapy is a field where significant progress in the research on nanoparticle carriers has been achieved. After intravenous injection, nanoparticles can accumulate preferentially in the tumor tissue due to passive targeting, as a consequence of its leaky vasculature (enhanced permeability and retention effect, EPR). Active targeting is achieved by means of decorating the nanoparticle surface with ligands recognizing appropriate structures on target cells. Among numerous types of nanoparticles, aggregates made of amphiphilic block copolymers show great potential as drug carriers. Amphiphilic molecules in water solution can associate into various structures, such as micelles, filomicelles, and vesicles. Polymeric aggregates typically have some advantages over aggregates made of low-molecular-weight detergents (e.g., high stability). This Special Issue is open to the recent developments in the application of self-assembled block copolymers for drug delivery. Topics can include, but are not limited to:
- Multifunctional and multitargeted nanoparticles;
- New targeting agents for drug carriers;
- Carriers for multidrug delivery and combination therapy;
- Stimuli-responsive drug release;
- Self-assembled nanoparticles with biological polymers;
- Strategies to enhance stability polymeric micelles.
Dr. Arkadiusz Orchel
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- micelles
- polymersomes
- drug delivery
- block copolymers
- passive targeting
- active targeting
- cancer
- multifunctional nanoparticles
- EPR effect
- stimuli-responsive drug release
- targeting ligand
- combination therapy
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