Inflammation is a biological process against harmful stimuli, such as outer pathogens, or injured cells, and is a prompt response to protect our body using immune cells, and molecular mediators such as cytokines, and chemokines. Inflammation can be classified as either acute or chronic. When the harmful stimuli invades the human body, acute inflammation is initiated by the migration of leukocytes from the blood into the injured tissues. Biochemical inflammatory events operate locally and systemic body dysfunction of the vascular and immune system occurs. Prolonged inflammation, known as chronic inflammation, is characterized by simultaneous destruction and healing of the tissue from the inflammatory process. Recently, there has been a discovery of using Korean Medicine to regulate inflammatory reactions via cellular and molecular mechanisms. Dysfunction or hyper-stimulation of inflammation can lead to disorders underlying a vast variety of human diseases such as sepsis, cancer, atherosclerosis, pancreatitis, liver injury and kidney injury. Exploring the anti-inflammatory properties of Korean Medicine provides a new therapeutic to combat these disorders.
This Research Topic aims to discover and develop novel single compounds (synthetic and natural products), chemically well-defined extracts, natural products or multiherbal combination formulae associated especially with Korean Medicines with anti-inflammatory properties in well-established experimental models (note, that for example the rat-paw oedema is no longer accepted as a sole or main model). Topics of interest also include pharmacokinetics, metabolism, pharmacology and toxicology related to use of Korean Medicines. While Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery is primarily centered on pharmacological research of new agents, novel pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic mechanisms that may explain or predict clinical effects of Korean medicines already in use and/or provide potential targets for drug development may also be welcome.
In this Research Topic, we welcome pharmacology-focused Original Research, Reviews, Clinical Trials, Methods, and Opinion articles that relate to the following aspects but are not limited to:
• Novel natural compounds, single compounds, chemically well-defined extract, natural products or combination formulas associated with Korean Medicines with anti-inflammatory properties.
•
In vitro or
in vivo anti-oxidant/inflammatory activity of Korean medicines in various experimental models.
• Underlying novel mechanisms or pathways of Korean medicines for prevention and treatment of inflammatory diseases (
in vitro and
in vivo).
• Clinical application of Korean medicines to treat inflammatory disease
• The molecular mechanisms of inflammatory disease development.
• Immuno-stimulation activity of Korean medicine.
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All the manuscripts submitted to the collection will need to fully comply with the
Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology (you can freely download the full version
here).