Molecular Systems for the Delivery of Drugs and Contrast Agents, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

The effective and target-specific delivery of drugs within organisms is one of the new frontiers of pharmaceutical research, promising to enhance the in vivo safety and efficacy of virtually any candidate pharmaceutical active principle by improving its bioavailability while drastically reducing both systemic and local side effects through substantial reductions in both doses and non-specific tissue interactions. Similar considerations apply to compounds applied for diagnostic purposes, spanning from antigens to contrast agents for diagnostic tissue imaging.

The problem is being addressed by a wealth of diverse strategies. Drug delivery systems have developed in recent decades from initial cage-like shuttles capable of incorporating drugs, thereby improving their solubility in physiological media, and gradually releasing them in time (e.g., cyclodextrines, fullerenes, plain liposomes), to expressly designed shuttles endowed with increasingly complex systems for controlled drug release, specific targeting of pathological hallmarks, or both. In parallel, the design of molecular and supramolecular structures fused to the actual pharmaceutically active compound, encompassing moieties capable of targeting specific disease biomarkers and/or promoting intracellular uptake, has flourished.

This Special Issue of Pharmaceutics aims to be a showcase for (supra)molecular systems and shuttles of any kind devised for the smart delivery of molecules to biological tissues for either diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Obviously, having no ambition to constitute an exhaustive panorama of the state of art in the field, we rather intend to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the reference community, with the hope of offering less sectorial points of view and, possibly, occasions to develop new networks. Accordingly, high-quality research articles covering a wealth of topics, including, but not limited to, biomarker- or biostructure-targeted pharmaceuticals, liposomes, phytosomes, micelles and other lipid-based nanoparticles, photo-switched drug compounds, systems for the controlled release of drugs, aptameric systems for disease hallmark recognition, DNA-origami-based drug shuttles, and metal and metal–organic nanoparticles of medicinal relevance, are welcomed, providing their originality and technical soundness. Well-documented reviews are also solicited, as they will help potential readers to orient themselves within this astonishingly heterogeneous field.

The deadline for submissions is 30th April 2026. Contributors are encouraged to send a tentative title and/or short abstract.

Dr. Angelo Maspero
Dr. Luca Nardo
Dr. Marco Lamperti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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