Stimuli-Responsive Therapeutic Formulations for Drug Release

Dear Colleagues,

Stimuli-responsive formulations bring the possibility to trigger the release of therapeutic agents at the disease site, providing efficacious drug levels therein. This idea was first introduced back in the 1970s, with thermosensitive liposomes. Since then, stimuli-responsive formulations have been an active field with a vast body of research comprising materials to design these systems as well as different strategies to exploit the outer and inner disease environment as triggering stimuli. Reported extracorporeal physical triggering stimuli include thermal, magnetic, ultrasound, light, chemical, and electric triggers. Formulations can also be sensitive on the tissue level, with endogenous signals such as acidic pH, redox potential (glutathione, GSH), enzymes, hypoxia, or infection, having been explored as trigger stimuli. So far, the main application of these systems has focused on the treatment of tumors and infections.

This Special Issue will highlight current advances and challenges in the broad theme of stimuli-responsive formulations. We encourage the submission of focused review manuscripts as well as original research concerning in vitro, in vivo, and translational studies.

Dr. Marina Santiago Franco
Guest Editor

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