About this Research Topic

Background

Bioactive natural products have been used worldwide for thousands of years with the goal of managing human health issues. They also represent a major source for drug discovery in the development of modern medicines. Although many natural products have been found bio-active and with low toxicity, most of them cannot be applied as first-in-line drugs for therapy, mainly because of their limited bioavailability. Structural modification of natural products has thus become an important process in modern drug discovery. However, drug development based on manmade compounds is usually time-consuming and costly. Nanotechnology has shown great success in the delivery of therapeutic molecules, with many successful cases to date involving natural bioactive compounds.

The advantages and potentials of advanced nanosystems for the delivery of natural products include:
1. improving the dosing efficiency of bioactive compounds that are poorly soluble in water;
2. providing site-targeting delivery in a controlled manner to minimize systemic side effects;
3. enhancing drug bioactivity by improving pharmacokinetic characteristics of the natural products;
4. easiness to combine both therapeutic and diagnostic capabilities in a single system.

This Research Topic aims at highlighting the current progress in natural product-based nanomedicines. The preparation and characterization of nanotherapeutics as well as their biological evaluation will form the main focus of this article collection. The selected nanosystems can be composed of either organic or inorganic materials, or both. Natural products or their combinations that are not typically considered drugs are our primary targets, while the delivery of well-developed drugs will be less considered. This Research Topic will not be limited to nanodelivery systems, as it is also open for advanced nanotechniques and nanodevices in other scientific and technical aspects of natural product-based nanomedicines and nanotheranostics.

We welcome Original Article, Review and Mini Review in the subtopics of interest, which include, but are not limited to:
• Nanocarriers for natural product delivery and controlled release
• The construction of nanomedicines by using natural products as structural moieties and their applications
• Natural product-made nanocrystals and their biomedical applications
• Natural product-assisted combination therapy based on nanoparticles
• Natural product-based nanotheranostics
• Other nanotechniques and nanodevices for natural product-based medicines

Keywords: nanotechnology, natural products

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.

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