Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus (DM), is a disease that occurs when the glucose level in the blood becomes too high (hyperglycaemia). Chronic hyperglycaemia is accompanied by both biochemical and pathological complications such as retinopathy,
nephropathy, neuropathy, and cardiovascular diseases. Diabetes mellitus can be classified into two types: type I which results from the destruction of pancreatic ß-cells, leading to insulin insufficiency and type II diabetes mellitus, which is mainly related to insulin resistance.
Optimal control of blood glucose levels remains the cornerstone of managing DM. To date, the major classes of antidiabetic medications used to treat diabetes include: biguanides, dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, sulfonylureas, meglitinides, thiazolidinediones (TZDs), sodium-glucose cotransporter (SGLT2) inhibitors, a-glucosidase inhibitors, glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptor and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and the various types of insulin. Several of these drugs may have, besides their antidiabetic properties, also important cardiovascular complications for the patients taking them.
Despite recent clinical trials for new anti-diabetic compounds such as the sodium glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors or the glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) having revealed unexpected benefits in terms of cardiovascular protection, there is still
an urgent need to screen and test new molecules able to exert the same benefits while lowering the risk of potential side effects.
The scope of this Research Topic is therefore to identify novel therapeutic interventions capable of counteracting the negative effects of diabetes on the cardiovascular system.
Specific themes of interest cover new natural and synthetic compounds for the treatment of diabetes including the following:
- Evaluation of their risk to benefit ratio on the cardiovascular system
- Evaluation of their effects on the immune system
- Evaluation of their effects on fibrotic processes
This research topic welcomes submissions of original research articles, reviews, systematic reviews, case reports and opinion articles.
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). Importantly, we expect a detailed description of the material used in the pharmacological experiments or a clinical study. Therefore, we also expect that the MS follow the standards established in the
ConPhyMP statement Front. Pharmacol. 13:953205..
Please ascertain that the ethnopharmacological context is clearly described and that the material investigated is characterized in detail .
