In the past decades, biomaterials have progressed tremendously in the field of drug delivery in regenerative and therapeutic medicine. Various bioactive agents, e.g., small molecules/compounds, genes, peptides, growth factors, and therapeutic cells, e.g. stem cells, have been delivered in a spatiotemporally controlled manner to the targeted site. However, many bioactive agents are sensitive to the surrounding environment and must act intracellularly at the molecular level. Thus, to be effective, they require an appropriate carrier, which can take them the form of a scaffold, particles, or genetically modified cells. The choice of appropriate biomaterials and biofabrication technology strongly affects therapeutic efficacies by modulating drug distribution, cellular uptake, and metabolism, as well as by bioactively supporting the survival and function of therapeutic cells. Several limitations are highlighted in the clinical applications, e.g. the route of administration and side effects caused by the systemic delivery. Therefore, different administration routes of nanocarriers become more prominent to treat systemic symptoms, e.g. transdermal drug delivery, blood-brain barrier drug delivery, and inhalation route. What they have in common is to potentially improve therapeutic effects and reduce side effects compared with currently approved systemic medications or compared with the systemic doses currently necessary if delivery to their site of action is enhanced. Moreover, much of the success of such local or site-specific smart drug delivery systems is related to the proper combination of active agents, cells, biomaterials, and nanotechnologies. The activity of regenerative medicine with the manipulation of the physiochemical environment can offer new capabilities in terms of reduced healing time, faster tissue formation, and rapid functional recovery in improving the efficacies of conventional treatment. All these motivated scientific researchers to synthesize novel, economic, and better-tolerated biomaterials for more efficient drug delivery to target-specific tissues and cells of interest.
Regenerative and therapeutic medicine is the process of creating living, functional tissues to repair or replace, or organ function lost due to age, disease, damage, or congenital defects. Compared with conventional drug systemic delivery, topical delivery, e.g. transdermal delivery, nose-to-brain-delivery, presents a promising alternative enabling efficient delivery of regenerative and therapeutic medicine to targeted tissues or cells, while bypassing skin or blood-brain barrier. Each drug formulation favors different transport mechanisms, including intracellular and intercellular pathways, and during drug formulation development, the influence of permeability across bio-barriers, absorption into the blood circulation, and the remaining time in the diseased regions have to be considered. Although much effort has been made in this field, there are still many challenges: the optimal local concentration of the bioactive agents, the lack of correlation of in vitro with in vivo release profiles, and other factors that cannot be mimicked in the simple in vitro system. This Research Topic aims to together articles concerning the development of potential biomaterials for topical delivery of regenerative purposes and disease treatment, as well as signaling pathways involved in molecular/cellular biology to address how regenerative medicine can be adapted with biomaterials into the existing organ system. The original research, reviews, minireview, and perspective works with new findings or viewpoints in the application of advanced biomaterials for topical delivery in regenerative and therapeutic medicine are welcome.
The current Research Topic aims to cover promising, recent, and novel research trends in the development of functional biomaterials for topical drug delivery in regenerative and therapeutic medicine. The key areas to be covered in this research topic may include, but are not limited to:
• Biomaterials for topical delivery of regenerative and therapeutic medicine (including drugs, growth factors, stem cells, etc.)
• Innovative strategies of drug administration to improve the therapeutic efficacy of medicine
• Technological innovations in Integration of biomaterials for regenerative/therapeutic medicine
• Molecular and cellular biology of regenerative/therapeutic medicine
• Fundamental research and medical implementation of regenerative medicine
• Tissue repair mechanisms and intervention
• Cell-based therapy
• Permeability and absorption
• Influence and applications of biomaterials on topical delivery and regenerative medicine development
In the past decades, biomaterials have progressed tremendously in the field of drug delivery in regenerative and therapeutic medicine. Various bioactive agents, e.g., small molecules/compounds, genes, peptides, growth factors, and therapeutic cells, e.g. stem cells, have been delivered in a spatiotemporally controlled manner to the targeted site. However, many bioactive agents are sensitive to the surrounding environment and must act intracellularly at the molecular level. Thus, to be effective, they require an appropriate carrier, which can take them the form of a scaffold, particles, or genetically modified cells. The choice of appropriate biomaterials and biofabrication technology strongly affects therapeutic efficacies by modulating drug distribution, cellular uptake, and metabolism, as well as by bioactively supporting the survival and function of therapeutic cells. Several limitations are highlighted in the clinical applications, e.g. the route of administration and side effects caused by the systemic delivery. Therefore, different administration routes of nanocarriers become more prominent to treat systemic symptoms, e.g. transdermal drug delivery, blood-brain barrier drug delivery, and inhalation route. What they have in common is to potentially improve therapeutic effects and reduce side effects compared with currently approved systemic medications or compared with the systemic doses currently necessary if delivery to their site of action is enhanced. Moreover, much of the success of such local or site-specific smart drug delivery systems is related to the proper combination of active agents, cells, biomaterials, and nanotechnologies. The activity of regenerative medicine with the manipulation of the physiochemical environment can offer new capabilities in terms of reduced healing time, faster tissue formation, and rapid functional recovery in improving the efficacies of conventional treatment. All these motivated scientific researchers to synthesize novel, economic, and better-tolerated biomaterials for more efficient drug delivery to target-specific tissues and cells of interest.
Regenerative and therapeutic medicine is the process of creating living, functional tissues to repair or replace, or organ function lost due to age, disease, damage, or congenital defects. Compared with conventional drug systemic delivery, topical delivery, e.g. transdermal delivery, nose-to-brain-delivery, presents a promising alternative enabling efficient delivery of regenerative and therapeutic medicine to targeted tissues or cells, while bypassing skin or blood-brain barrier. Each drug formulation favors different transport mechanisms, including intracellular and intercellular pathways, and during drug formulation development, the influence of permeability across bio-barriers, absorption into the blood circulation, and the remaining time in the diseased regions have to be considered. Although much effort has been made in this field, there are still many challenges: the optimal local concentration of the bioactive agents, the lack of correlation of in vitro with in vivo release profiles, and other factors that cannot be mimicked in the simple in vitro system. This Research Topic aims to together articles concerning the development of potential biomaterials for topical delivery of regenerative purposes and disease treatment, as well as signaling pathways involved in molecular/cellular biology to address how regenerative medicine can be adapted with biomaterials into the existing organ system. The original research, reviews, minireview, and perspective works with new findings or viewpoints in the application of advanced biomaterials for topical delivery in regenerative and therapeutic medicine are welcome.
The current Research Topic aims to cover promising, recent, and novel research trends in the development of functional biomaterials for topical drug delivery in regenerative and therapeutic medicine. The key areas to be covered in this research topic may include, but are not limited to:
• Biomaterials for topical delivery of regenerative and therapeutic medicine (including drugs, growth factors, stem cells, etc.)
• Innovative strategies of drug administration to improve the therapeutic efficacy of medicine
• Technological innovations in Integration of biomaterials for regenerative/therapeutic medicine
• Molecular and cellular biology of regenerative/therapeutic medicine
• Fundamental research and medical implementation of regenerative medicine
• Tissue repair mechanisms and intervention
• Cell-based therapy
• Permeability and absorption
• Influence and applications of biomaterials on topical delivery and regenerative medicine development
