About this Research Topic
Many nanomedicines were designed to respond to specific stimuli, including changes in the external physical environment or internal biological cues. Emerging “intelligent” nanomedicines are engaged by the biological, or pathological, milieu in disease sites as triggers for “on-demand” control of therapeutic and/or diagnostic activation. At the frontier of bio-nano engineering, the innovative approaches of response sensitivity and specificity, as well as spatiotemporal controllability will bring nanomedicines closer to translational medicine and individualized approaches.
This Research Topic on “intelligent” nanomedicines covers design and concepts of novel bio-nano engineered approaches for biological/pathological milieu-responsive nanosystems (e.g., pH, redox, hypoxia, enzymes, nucleic acids, and other ions/small biomolecules). Their applications, including post-therapeutic evaluation, image-guided therapy, tailored therapeutics, and translational medicine, will also be covered in this collection. In general, the main goal of this Research Topic is to provide advanced bio-responsive strategies that are not required for the safe and effective therapeutic outcome of designed nanosystems, but should introduce the meaningful significance (for example, innovative prodrug-nanosystems for improved absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME), co-delivery strategies to overcome multidrug resistance, and effective drug-diagnostic approaches for translational optimization) that will motivate and inspire both academic communities and industry to accelerate these interdisciplinary research developments and their translation to clinical uses.
The main scope of the current Research Topic focuses on innovative bio-nano engineering approaches for “intelligent” nanomedicines and their significance in translational medicine. Types of manuscripts to be featured include Original Research, Methods, Protocols, Review, and Perspective articles. Themes to be investigated may include, but are not limited to:
• Bio-responsive nanomedicines
• Bio-nano engineered nanotheranostics
• Nano-biomimetics for therapeutic and/or diagnostic uses
• Tailored therapeutics
• Imaging-guided therapy
• Post-therapeutic evaluation
• Nanotheranostics facilitated translational medicine
• Integrated companion and complementary diagnostics
We would like to thank Dr. Junqing Wang for his great efforts in the preparation of the Research Topic and for his role as Co-ordinator.
Keywords: Bio-responsive, Bio-nano, Companion Diagnostics, Intelligent, Nanomedicine
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.