The aim of this special issue of Journal of Nanomaterials is to provide the readers with the latest achievement of aerosol-related fabrication, drug delivery, and controlled release of nanostructured particles. Controlled release of active ingredients is required to prolong time periods, maximize efficacy, and reduce side effects. Biodegradable materials, such as polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, and liposomes, have been widely used for drug delivery. Recent research has focused on developing structurally stable high-dosage drug delivery systems without any premature release. Pulmonary drug delivery is the preferred route of administration of aerosolized drugs in the treatment of respiratory diseases including asthma and cystic fibrosis, infectious diseases, as well as some nonrespiratory diseases such as type I diabetes. The delivery by inhalation utilizes the extensive surface area of the alveoli, avoiding hepatic first-pass metabolism and enabling noninvasive administration of larger doses to the lungs, leading to greater therapy without increasing toxicity. The following drugs are of major interest for pulmonary delivery: insulin, interferon-a, erythropoietin, a1-antitrypsin, corticosteroids, calcitonin, factor VIII, enzymes and antibodies, DNA and siRNA, and so forth. To maximize the deposition in desired lung regions, a formulation of the aerodynamic diameter, size distribution, morphology, drug distribution, porosity, pore size, pore connectivity, density, and surface chemistries is needed for highly dispersible, easy to handle, and efficiently aerosolized particles. Nanoporous particles with 2~5 μm in aerodynamic size or porous nanoparticle-aggregate particles are appropriate to reduce the clearance from the lungs. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been applied to investigate the deposition and improve the deposition effectiveness.

Papers are solicited in, but not limited to, the following areas:

• Aerosol-assisted evaporation-induced self-assembly
• Aerosol fabrication of nanostructured particles and drug encapsulation
• Computation fluid dynamics and numerical simulations of aerosol processing
• Sampling and characterizations of aerosol-nanostructured particles
• Aerosol deposition in the respiratory tract
• Pulmonary drug delivery from formulation, design, and evaluation
• Mechanisms of particle adhesion and detachment
• Nanoparticle transport/tracing through biofilms and mucus
• Controlled release from nanostructured particles
• Inhalation toxicology of nanoparticles

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