Intelligent Drug Delivery in the Context of Nanobiotechnology

Nanobiotechnology enables precision medicine by harnessing nanoscale technologies to engineer responsive systems for drug delivery. These advancements facilitate the creation of nanocarriers that sense and react to local biological cues—such as pH, redox state, enzymes, or external fields—to improve therapy selectivity, minimize off-target effects, and overcome biological barriers. More broadly, innovations in nanocarrier design, synthesis, and disease-targeted application—whether or not built around an explicit sensing trigger—are expanding what nanomedicine can achieve across a range of pathologies. However, critical questions remain about optimizing stimulus-response accuracy, ensuring rigorous biosafety, and translating these designs from proof-of-concept to patient-ready solutions. Recent progress includes the integration of multi-functional triggers within single nanosystems, real-time imaging of delivery processes, sustainable and phytochemical-based synthesis routes for bioactive nanomaterials, and the early promise of organ-on-chip models for preclinical validation, yet the challenge of tuning these systems for individualized or disease-specific responses persists.This Research Topic aims to advance the development, understanding, and application of responsive, environment-sensitive, and next-generation nanocarriers for intelligent drug delivery. Key objectives include uncovering the molecular mechanisms underpinning stimulus-responsiveness and other nanocarrier-mediated therapeutic mechanisms, improving spatiotemporal control over drug release, and innovating platforms for personalized therapeutics. We particularly encourage work that bridges nano-engineering strategies with rigorous biomedical evaluation, asks how integrated sensing modules or novel nanocarrier compositions can be tailored for specific pathologies, and explores how real-time monitoring can optimize therapeutic outcomes.This Research Topic focuses on nanoscale drug delivery systems engineered to respond to specific internal or external biological stimuli for controlled, targeted, and adaptive therapeutic release, as well as emerging nanocarrier platforms—including sustainably synthesized and disease-mechanism-targeted nanomaterials—that advance precision drug delivery more broadly. Delivery methods not involving nanotechnology remain outside the scope of this Research Topic. To gather further insights in this rapidly developing space, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:- Rational design of stimulus-responsive nanocarriers (e.g., pH-, enzyme-, redox-, light-, magneto-responsive)- Hybrid and multifunctional nanosystems with environment-adaptive release- Integration of real-time imaging or on-board sensing with drug delivery vehicles- Nano-bio interactions influencing responsiveness and targeting- Safety and nanotoxicological evaluation of responsive carriers- Organ-on-chip and advanced models for delivery and response assessment- Challenges and innovations in clinical or industrial translation of stimulus-responsive nanomedicines- Design and optimization of nanocarriers tailored for metabolic, inflammatory, or lipid-driven pathologies- Green, phytochemical-mediated, or biogenic synthesis of functional nanomaterials for drug delivery and nutraceutical applications Topic editors: Kamran Ali, Muhammad Zubair Iqbal, Longguang Tang Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80610/intelligent-drug-delivery-in-the-context-of-nanobiotechnology