Arquimedes Gasparotto Junior ^*

• Federal University of Grande Dourados, Dourados, Brazil

some ethnopharmacological or alternative therapies, such as medicinal plants (Tabeshpour et al., 2024) and acupuncture (Liu et al., 2023) may be helpful. Thus, in this special topic titled "World No-Tobacco Day: An Ethnopharmacological Perspective," the authors presented new scientific data on pre-clinical and clinical studies related to the dangers of tobacco use and the tobacco industry, focusing on ethnopharmacological or alternative therapies.Recent studies have yielded conflicting results regarding the relationship between smoking history and the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors for advanced lung cancer. While some studies have pointed to evidence that smoking may enhance the response to immunotherapy in patients with lung cancer, other findings do not corroborate these results. preparation obtained from the fruit peels of P. cauliflora (ESEG) using male New Zealand rabbits fed for 60 days with a diet enriched with 1% cholesterol. The oral administration of ESEG significantly lowered lipid levels, decreasing systemic oxidative stress and reducing the levels of IL-1b, IL-6, sICAM-1, and sVCAM-1 in the bloodstream. Additionally, a significant reduction of atherosclerotic lesions was observed in all branches of the arteries. The findings suggest that EEPC may be a possible option for additional management of atherosclerosis.Representing the alternative therapies used in the management of smoking, Dai and collaborators (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2024.1418967/full) conducted a multicenter, randomized, controlled, double-blind clinical trial to evaluate the effects of acupuncture in the presence or absence of nicotine patches on smoking cessation. The primary outcome was self-reported smoking abstinence verified with expiratory carbon monoxide after 8 weeks of treatment. The data showed that acupuncture combined with nicotine replacement patch therapy was more effective for smoking cessation than acupuncture alone or nicotine replacement patch alone, suggesting the efficacy of acupuncture as a complementary therapy for smoking cessation. In conclusion, this edition provides a thorough overview of the new studies related to tobacco use and the tobacco industry, focusing on ethnopharmacological and alternative therapies.Collectively, the pre-clinical and clinical studies that compose the special issue "World No-Tobacco Day: An Ethnopharmacological Perspective" present perspectives for future research regarding new therapies in tobacco use and dependence.