Nasal Nanotechnology: What Do We Know and What Is Yet to Come?

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit original research papers and reviews in the field of nasal drug delivery technology.

This Special Issue is addressed to researchers who are investigating different aspects related to the intranasal administration of drugs and bioactive molecules. It is well known that the nose can be an administration site for different therapeutic purposes: from local treatment to systemic adsorption and to the more recent application for brain targeting, as well as through the olfactory and trigeminal nerve pathways. This strategy allows drugs to reach the brain quickly by evading the BBB, showing a fast onset of action and fewer systemic side effects.

Researchers design formulations with selected raw materials and suitable production processes to obtain specific properties of a final formulation to achieve the above goals. Raw materials (polymers, lipids, surfactants, phospholipids) could be used individually or in combination to produce hybrid systems modified appropriately through functionalization with different molecules (i.e., targeting ligands, cell penetration peptides, etc.). These different strategies provide unique properties to the resulting system in terms of stability in biological fluids, mucoadhesion and controlled drug release.

Both microparticles and/or nanomedicine represent interesting formulation strategies for intranasal delivery. Exploring different aims requires a deep investigation of designed carriers, including specific in vitro evaluations. Ex vivo and in vivo experiments on healthy or disease model animals are used to achieve a proof of concept and are considered as crucial for the acceptance of submitted research papers.

This Special Issue will consider manuscripts dealing with the nasal administration of drug formulations for different therapeutic purposes. Particularly, devices used for nasal administration in preclinical studies represent a growing area of interest for distinguishing internal nasal regions that have been reached.

Original research and review articles are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: local pathologies such as infectious (caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa) and non-infectious diseases (e.g., caused by allergic and non-allergic, hormonal, and drug-induced reactions); systemic effect (vaccines, lung diseases, etc.); and brain targeting (neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic syndrome, trigeminal pain, headache, etc.).

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Rosario Pignatello
Prof. Dr. Teresa Musumeci
Guest Editors

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Pharmaceutics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). 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.