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Smart Polymers for Delivery of Bioactive Molecules

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2019) | Viewed by 3440

Special Issue Editors

Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP) Research Unit, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, School of Therapeutic Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Interests: biopolymers; drug delivery; nanomedicine; stimuli responsive polymers; 3D printing; monolithic matrices; translational neuromaterials; pharmaceutics
Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa
Interests: drug delivery; biomaterials; nanomedicine; computational pharmaceutics; neurotherapeutics; polymers; 3D bioprinting; pharmaceutics; pharmaceutical formulation; targeted drug therapy; ocular drug delivery; colloidal systems; tissue engineering; infectious diseases; oncology; HIV; tuberculosis; STIs; malaria; wound healing; protein/peptide therapeutics; nucleic acid delivery systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP) Research Unit, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, School of Therapeutic Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Interests: biomaterials; drug delivery; nanomedicine; stimuli responsive polymers; regenerative medicine; tissue engineering; molecular modelling; translational neuromaterials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Smart polymers are specialized macromolecules with an ability to respond to slight changes in environmental conditions, such as pH, temperature, chemical stimuli, ionic strength, illumination, electric/magnetic stimulation, enzymes, mechanical stress, pressure, and even hydration. The stimuli-responsive and/or -reversible nature of these intelligent polymers has been employed in several biomedical applications, including bioactive delivery and regenerative medicine. Typical examples include site specific oral drug delivery (pH, ion, and enzyme), injectable depot implants (temperature, oxidative stress), or externally modulated on and off bioactive delivery (electric, magnetic, light, stress). This Special Issue will be focused on collecting state-of-the-art reviews, research articles, and concept papers highlighting latest advances in the related topics and will provide a platform for bridging the gap between new intelligent polymers and their potential application in bioactive delivery. Interesting topics covering design and synthesis of novel smart polymers, repurposing of known polymers for potential stimuli responsiveness, characterization of their engineered structures, and related molecular simulations are welcome.  

Prof. Viness Pillay
Prof. Yahya E. Choonara
Dr. Pradeep Kumar
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 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. Molecules 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

  • Stimuli responsive polymers
  • Thermo-sensitive drug delivery
  • pH-sensitive polymers for oral drug delivery
  • Shape-memory polymers
  • Smart hydrogels
  • On and off bioactive delivery
  • Electroactive gels
  • Phase separation
  • 3D printing

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 4158 KiB  
Article
Preparation, In Vivo and In Vitro Release of Polyethylene Glycol Monomethyl Ether-Polymandelic Acid Microspheres Loaded Panax Notoginseng Saponins
by Yi He, Hongli Li, Xiangyu Zheng, Mingwei Yuan, Renyu Yang, Minglong Yuan and Cui Yang
Molecules 2019, 24(10), 2024; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24102024 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3101
Abstract
In order to enrich the types of Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) sustained-release preparations and provide a new research idea for the research and development of traditional Chinese medicine sustained-release formulations, a series of Panax notoginseng saponins microspheres was prepared by a double emulsion [...] Read more.
In order to enrich the types of Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) sustained-release preparations and provide a new research idea for the research and development of traditional Chinese medicine sustained-release formulations, a series of Panax notoginseng saponins microspheres was prepared by a double emulsion method using a series of degradable amphiphilic macromolecule materials polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether-polymandelic acid (mPEG-PMA) as carrier. The structure and molecular weight of the series of mPEG-PMA were determined by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1 HNMR) and gel chromatography (GPC). The results of the appearance, particle size, drug loading and encapsulation efficiency of the drug-loaded microspheres show that the mPEG10000-PMA (1:9) material is more suitable as a carrier for loading the total saponins of Panax notoginseng. The particle size was 2.51 ± 0.21 μm, the drug loading and encapsulation efficiency were 8.54 ± 0.16% and 47.25 ± 1.64%, respectively. The drug-loaded microspheres were used for in vitro release and degradation experiments to investigate the degradation and sustained release behaviour of the drug-loaded microspheres. The biocompatibility of the microspheres was studied by haemolytic, anticoagulant and cytotoxicity experiments. The pharmacological activity of the microspheres was studied by anti-inflammatory and anti-tumour experiments. The results showed that the drug-loaded microspheres could be released stably for about 12 days and degraded within 60 days. At the same time, the microspheres had good biocompatibility, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumour activities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Polymers for Delivery of Bioactive Molecules)
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