Nanopharmaceuticals for Image-Guided Cancer Therapy and Diagnosis, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Image-guided medicine is rapidly growing and improving treatment regimens as a result of advancing medical imaging techniques, with progress made in areas including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), radiography, ultrasound, positron emission tomography (PET), optical fluorescent imaging, and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). There are also new types of pharmaceuticals for image-guided cancer therapy and diagnosis. The pharmaceutical advances in cancer treatment and diagnosis have great potential to be precise and effective. One of the emerging fields in this regard is image-guided therapy using various nanopharmaceuticals. These include basic bench, preclinical in vitro/in vivo and clinical research methods, combining the synthesis of multimodal nanopharmaceuticals and tracking/navigation tools to improve the accuracy and outcomes of conventional therapeutics. Most emerging interventional techniques such as stimuli-responsive pharmaceuticals for local drug delivery, image-guided local ablation (microwave, electrical field, or HIFU), percutaneous injection for gene/virus/bacteria therapy, transcatheter treatments for tumor-specific local therapy, serial biopsy, thrombolytic therapy and so on can be combined with nanopharmaceuticals in the clinic. The careful design/selection/synthesis of multifunctional imaging/therapeutic nanomaterials with therapeutic agents will be critical for the translational optimization of these new image-guided medicine techniques. The nanopharmaceuticals capable of image-guided therapy also have great potential for immunotherapy, a potential use which has received extensive attention in recent years. Following a bio-inspired approach, the fusion of existing nanomedicine with extracellular vesicles (EVs) including exosomes will enable the development of new types of imaging-capable therapeutics.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to collet cutting-edge research into image-guided nanopharmaceutical technologies from leading scientists in order to promote new opportunities and perspectives for the use of nanotechnology in human healthcare.  

This Special Issue will cover the following topics, but is not limited to them:

• Micro/Nano Pharmaceutics for Multifunctional Imaging and Therapy
• New Interventional Approaches using Nanopharmaceuticals
• Smart Nanomaterials for Biomedical Applications
•  Noble Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Nanoparticles for Image-Guided Pharmaceutics
• Magnetic Nanoparticle-Mediated Local Image-Guided Therapy
• Multifunctional Drug Delivery Systems
• Nano Radiosensitizers for Brachytherapy
• Stimuli-Responsive Polymeric Materials for Photodynamic/Photothermal Therapy
• Novel Nanopharmaceuticals for Cancer Immunotherapy
• Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) for Image-Guided Therapy

Any works concerning nano/micro-pharmaceutics for medical applications, as well as the development of new image-guided approaches for the effective treatment of diseases, will fall within the scope of this Special Issue. All submitted papers must either present novel results or the advance previously published data, and the matter concerned should be addressed with scientific rigor.

Prof. Dr. Dong-Hyun Kim
Prof. Dr. Wooram Park
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. 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.

• image-guided therapy
• theranostics
• multimodal medical imaging
• translational cancer nanomedcine
• medical imaging contrast agents
• nanotechnology
• organic/Inorganic hybrid materials for medicine
• multifunctional carriers
• magnetic nanoparticles
• targeted local immunotherapy
• photodynamic therapy (PDT)
• photothermal therapy (PTT)
• cancer immunotherapy
• cancer vaccine
• precision medicine
• extracellular vesicles (EVs)
• exosomes

• Nanopharmaceuticals for Image-Guided Cancer Therapy and Diagnosis in Pharmaceutics (13 articles)