Biodegradable Polymers: Recent Advances in Drug Delivery and Regenerative Medicine
A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomacromolecules, Biobased and Biodegradable Polymers".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 441
Special Issue Editor
Interests: polymer- and lipid-based nanocarriers; functionalization; drug delivery; nanovaccines; hydrogels; tissue repair
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
During the last decades, biodegradable polymers, both synthetic (e.g., polyesters such as poly(lactide-co-glycolide), polyanhydrides, etc.) and of natural origin (e.g., polysaccharides, proteins) have been extensively used, individually or in combinations, in drug delivery and regenerative medicine due to their exceptional physicochemical, mechanical and biological properties that can be fine-tuned to meet specific needs. Biodegradable polymers exhibit low immunogenicity and break down to non-cytotoxic products that can be readily removed from the body through natural metabolic pathways. Their application has been realized via the development of functional polymeric nano-, microcarriers as targeted delivery systems for small molecule drugs, biomolecules, vaccines and genes, and the formation of scaffolds and hydrogels for organ/tissue repair, wound healing, etc. In drug delivery, the use of biodegradable nanocarriers allows a controlled/sustained drug release profile. In tissue engineering, biodegradability is of primary importance since ideally the rate of tissue formation should match that of scaffold degradation.
This Special Issue is devoted to the most recent research on biodegradable polymers for drug delivery and regenerative medicine applications, covering the synthesis and functionalization of macromers, the formation and characterization of drug loaded nanocarriers, and/or scaffolds/hydrogels, as well as their in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo evaluation.
Dr. Olga Kammona
Guest Editor
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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.
Keywords
- biodegradable polymers
- polymer synthesis
- biofunctionalization
- drug delivery
- controlled release
- nanocarriers
- targeting
- tissue engineering
- scaffolds
- biomimetic hydrogels
