Dear Colleagues,

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization (WHO) have recognized non-comunicable diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, as major global public health burdens and the leading causes of death both nationally and internationally.

Strategies for preventing and controlling the leading causes of non-communicable disease-related deaths worldwide are needed. Despite recent advances in the management of these diseases, pharmaceutical treatment remains suboptimal because of poor pharmacokinetics and the high toxicity of some therapeutic compounds.

In the last few years, a new era of biomaterials has grown, and become one of the most influential and innovative hot topics of research. Biomaterial Science ushers a completely new technological paradigm favoring the development of novel drug delivery applications that are transforming the healthcare sector. The design and development of multifunctional and biomimetic drug delivery systems, compatible with human physiology, are crucial to boosting life expectancy and increasing quality of life.

There has been a long-standing interest in understanding and utilizing different solutions of drug delivery to tackle challenging issues of precision medicine.

Considerable efforts in improving drug efficacy, pharmacokinetics, and biodistribution of therapeutic agents through site-specific, target-oriented delivery and controlled drug release, thus reducing most of all side adverse effects, have been achieved through drug delivery systems.

With a focus on- but not limited to- cancer and cardiovascular diseases, in this special issue will be an overview of the major challenges and fundamental discoveries in drug delivery systems, whose structure, properties, or function mimic those of natural materials or living matter. Particular attention will be devoted to the progress which has been made in technology and methods for the synthesis and self-assembly of drug delivery systems and in the design of materials for the delivery of therapeutics.

Original research and reviews with a strong focus on newer and challenging products are welcome, with particular emphasis on – but not limited to – biomimetic, biocompatible, and biodegradable drug delivery systems with tunable drug-release profiles, able to respond to environmental stimuli and control the spatiotemporal presentation of a therapeutic, engineered drug delivery systems of various sizes, shapes, compositions and physicochemical properties and functionalized biosensor drug delivery systems with theranostic feature.

Prof. Dr. Caterina Cinti
Prof. Dr. Pier Paolo Claudio
Guest Editors

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• human diseases
• cancer
• cardiovascular disease
• biomaterials
• drug delivery
• targeted therapies
• theranostics