Intravesical Therapies and Intravesical Drug Delivery

Call for Papers

Direct administration of drug solutions into the bladder through a urethral catheter easily overcomes systemic adverse events of drugs used for several bladder dysfunctions. Nevertheless, transport of drugs across the bladder urothelium represents a complex and an incompletely understood process. Commonly used for the treatment of superficial bladder cancer, intravesical drug administration has been introduced in the treatment of bladder dysfunction since 1989. The presence of several receptors for different neurotransmitters (cholinergic, adrenergic, purinergic, vanilloid, and cannabinoid receptors) also at the level of urothelial cells should allow an easy pharmacological modulation of bladder dysfunction. The intravesical route offers new and promising adjunctive therapies for several lower urinary tract pathologies. Intravesical administration of therapeutic agents in interstitial cystitis/bladder painful syndrome (IC/BPS) allows immediate symptom relief during symptom flare up and can determine a beneficial effect in a long-term treatment. For overactive bladder (OAB) and detrusor overactivity the intravesical route represents the ideal way of drug administration particularly when oral antimuscarinics fail to reach an adequate control of OAB. In recent years intravesical anticholinergics, capsaicin and resiniferatoxin, botulinum toxin type A, have been demonstrated to induce a chemical neuromodulation of afferent neurotransmission of the underlying detrusor overactivity. Novel molecular techniques as intravesical antisense treatments have been recently developed and are actually under investigation. This gene-silencing approach is targeted toward sequence-specific silencing of target mRNA of proteins in the bladder, specifically involved in the pathophysiology of voiding dysfunction. Furthermore, indwelling devices made from biodegradable polymers can be used as a reservoir for drugs delivered with bladder instillation.

The main focus of this special issue will be on the most recent developments in intravesical therapies and drug delivery for bladder dysfunction. We particularly take an interest in papers that report basic and clinic researches on existing or new intravesical agents for OAB and IC/BPS. Reviews that summarize the results of clinical trials for recent or new drugs or treatment modalities used in intravesical treatments of bladder dysfunction are of great interest. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• The role of urothelium and urothelial neurotransmitters and neuroreceptors in OAB and IC/BPS
• Neurotoxins in the treatment of detrusor overactivity: basic and clinical research
• Modulation of cannabinoid system in detrusor overactivity and IC-BPS
• Intravesical drug delivery with liposomes and electromotive drug administration
• Intravesical antisense treatment for detrusor overactivity and IC/BPS
• The use of indwelling devices for detrusor overactivity and IC/BPS

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/bmri/pharmacology/idd/ according to the following timetable:

Lead Guest Editor

• Antonella Giannantoni, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Guest Editors

• Prokar Dasgupta, King’s College London School of Medicine, London, UK
• John Heesakkers, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands