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EDITORIAL article

Front. Med. Technol., 24 February 2023
Sec. Nano-Based Drug Delivery
Volume 5 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmedt.2023.1130414
This article is part of the Research Topic Highlights in Nano-Based Drug Delivery 2021/22 View all 7 articles

Editorial: Highlights in nano-based drug delivery 2021/22

\r\nSantosh KumarSantosh Kumar1Helena F. FlorindoHelena F. Florindo2Gianfranco Pasut \r\nGianfranco Pasut3*
  • 1Department of Chemistry, School of Basic & Applied Sciences, Harcourt Butler Technical University, Kanpur, India
  • 2Research Institute for Medicines (IMed.ULisboa), Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 3Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences Department, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

Editorial on the Research Topic
Highlights in nano-based drug delivery 2021/22

We are pleased to introduce the Research Topic Frontiers in Medical Technology – Highlights in Nano-Based Drug Delivery 2021/22. The articles published in this brief collection provide an important contribution to the field of nano-based delivery.

The paper Modeling the Three-Dimensional Bioprinting Process of β-Sheet Self-Assembling Peptide Hydrogel Scaffolds, authored by Chiesa and colleagues, describes an interesting approach of extrusion-based three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting. 3D bioprinting is fast changing the field of personalized healthcare offering new approaches and processes for the fabrication of scaffolds, living tissues, unique drug dosage forms, etc. This paper highlights the limitations of the common trial and error approaches, which are frequently used for achieving the desired final features of the designed structures. To address such issue, the authors investigated the potential of finite element simulation in predicting the printability of a biomaterial. Thanks to this study, the authors successfully 3D bioprinted human ear-shaped scaffolds by using self-assembling peptide hydrogels with a poly(vinyl alcohol)–poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) copolymer. This methodology can have a broad applicability, thus further promoting the expansion of 3D bioprinting.

Gene therapy has finally climbed the mountain of efforts and has become a real therapy option, with enormous future applications and great expectations. Gene therapy has grown thanks to improvements on gene delivery that takes care of the proper transportation of the genetic material to the target cells via viral or non-viral carriers. Pardridge's review Brain Delivery of Nanomedicines: Trojan Horse Liposomes for Plasmid DNA Gene Therapy of the Brain offers a great overview of the requirements needed for the development of an ambitious project on brain gene therapy. The challenge, as it can be easily understood, is huge owing to the intrinsic difficulties encountered in crossing the blood-brain barrier. Here, you can find a precise analysis of all relevant components that can guide you towards the successful delivery of genetic material to the brain.

Another relevant investigation has been conducted by de la Flor and colleagues. In their paper Multiple Sclerosis: LIFNano-CD4 for Trojan Horse Delivery of the Neuro-Protective Biologic “LIF” Into the Brain: Preclinical Proof of Concept, the authors studied the potential of a nanoformulation of the cell growth factor LIF for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Since such disease still represents an unmet medical need and this study can advance the development of new therapeutic approaches, in which thanks to a nanomedicine properly designed, the bioactive molecule is delivered precisely at the site of action.

We hope that you will enjoy the papers contained in this Research Topic, which we hope will inspire your future scientific endeavors.

Author contributions

GP and HF wrote the editorial, SK participated as a Research Topic editor. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Keywords: 3D bioprinting, hydrogels, brain delivery, gene therapy, multiple sclerosis

Citation: Kumar S, Florindo HF and Pasut G (2023) Editorial: Highlights in nano-based drug delivery 2021/22. Front. Med. Technol. 5:1130414. doi: 10.3389/fmedt.2023.1130414

Received: 23 December 2022; Accepted: 7 February 2023;
Published: 24 February 2023.

Edited and Reviewed by: Alicia Jennifer El Haj, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom

© 2023 Kumar, Florindo and Pasut. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Gianfranco Pasut gianfranco.pasut@unipd.it

Specialty Section: This article was submitted to Nano-Based Drug Delivery, a section of the journal Frontiers in Medical Technology

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.