About this Research Topic
This Research Topic addresses the discovery of therapeutic approaches using plant extracts and pure natural products from fruits to fight respiratory, urinary and digestive tract infections. We highlight the molecular mechanisms underlying anti-infectious activities and the therapeutic perspectives.
A tract infection (affecting the respiratory, urinary and digestive tracts) is the invasion of human tract tissues by disease-causing agents, their multiplication, and the reaction of human tissues to these pathogens and the toxins they produce, and it is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Inflammatory responses are crucial risk factors for the progression of tract infections. There are two major options of traction infection therapies: lifestyle interventions and pharmaceutical therapies. Emerging evidence demonstrates that regular exercise is a very effective and safe way to retard the progression of tract infection. Many drugs - including antibiotics - show positive outcomes in pharmaceutical therapies, but those cause global distribution of tract infection because of the selection of drug-resistant pathogens and treatment side effects. Therefore, the search for new anti-inflammatory drugs with limited unwanted side effects is a current preoccupation. This Research Topic will focus on novel pharmaceutical and pharmacological approaches using plant extracts (which need to be chemically characterized) and pure natural products but will not focus on lifestyle interventions.
A variety of fruits have medicinal qualities due to their anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. There is a growing awareness of the potential of fruits to fight respiratory, urinary and digestive tract infections, which has been confirmed in clinical trials. However, the mechanisms by which fruit-derived compounds attenuate the progression of tract infection remain largely unknown.
This Research Topic aims at promoting the discovery of new anti-inflammatory agents in fruits, and their mechanism of action against tract infection. We particularly welcome manuscripts dealing with:
- the discovery of new anti-infectious agents from fruits
- the characterization of discrete components and bioactive ingredients and their molecular targets
- the dynamic interaction between microbes and anti-infectious agents
- the therapeutic perspectives of newly-discovered molecules
- the rational design of new antimicrobial drugs
- animal models for pharmacological research of infection are an essential asset in this topic.
- Carefully designed clinical studies with chemically characterized plant extracts and pure natural product
Authors are strongly advised to follow the advice as follows:
The title should be concise, clear and appropriately describe the contents of the paper. Do not use unspecified, non-standard abbreviations in the title.
Methods are developing rapidly experimental pharmacology. For instance, for measurement of anti-inflammatory activity in vivo studies, simple in silico and pharmacologically irrelevant assays are not acceptable for assessing an extract or a compound for the activity.
In general we expect that the pharmacological study is linked to local or traditional uses of the species under investigation
Values in tables and text MUST NOT exaggerate the accuracy of the methods used.
Simple in silico and pharmacologically irrelevant assays for antioxidant activity (e.g. the DPPH assay, FRAP (Ferric Reducing Ability of Plasma), ABTS (2,2'-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) are not acceptable as a main tool for assessing an extract or a compound for activity. Such assays are commonly used in food chemistry, which is fine, but it is not of pharmacological relevance.
The selection of a validated and predictive animal and in vitro model is essential to address the clinical question and should meet the standards in ethnopharmacology. The selection, design and conduct of an animal model is highly recommended to assess both efficacy and safety endpoints.
Please provide positive and negative controls in science; the composition of the study material should be described sufficiently; All compounds should be used with clear purity; The identification of the study material should be clear and a voucher specimen must be deposited in an recognized herbarium .Organisms must be named according to the latest available lists of plants and all species are fully validated using http://mpns.kew.org/mpns-portal/ or www.theplantlist.org. It is essential that chemical documentation is provided as complete as possible.
When describing the pharmacokinetic properties of the biochemical that is the active ingredient or active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), pharmacologists are often interested in L-ADME: Liberation – How is the API disintegrated, dispersed, or dissolved from the medication? Absorption – How is the API absorbed (through the intestine, the oral mucosa)? Distribution – How does the API spread through the organism? Metabolism – Is the API converted chemically inside the body? Excretion – How is the API excreted (through urine, breath and skin)?
We encourage the submission of Original Research and Review article types.
A tract infection (affecting the respiratory, urinary and digestive tracts) is the invasion of human tract tissues by disease-causing agents, their multiplication, and the reaction of human tissues to these pathogens and the toxins they produce, and it is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Inflammatory responses are crucial risk factors for the progression of tract infections. There are two major options of traction infection therapies: lifestyle interventions and pharmaceutical therapies. Emerging evidence demonstrates that regular exercise is a very effective and safe way to retard the progression of tract infection. Many drugs - including antibiotics - show positive outcomes in pharmaceutical therapies, but those cause global distribution of tract infection because of the selection of drug-resistant pathogens and treatment side effects. Therefore, the search for new anti-inflammatory drugs with limited unwanted side effects is a current preoccupation. This Research Topic will focus on novel pharmaceutical and pharmacological approaches using plant extracts (which need to be chemically characterized) and pure natural products but will not focus on lifestyle interventions.
A variety of fruits have medicinal qualities due to their anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. There is a growing awareness of the potential of fruits to fight respiratory, urinary and digestive tract infections, which has been confirmed in clinical trials. However, the mechanisms by which fruit-derived compounds attenuate the progression of tract infection remain largely unknown.
This Research Topic aims at promoting the discovery of new anti-inflammatory agents in fruits, and their mechanism of action against tract infection. We particularly welcome manuscripts dealing with:
- the discovery of new anti-infectious agents from fruits
- the characterization of discrete components and bioactive ingredients and their molecular targets
- the dynamic interaction between microbes and anti-infectious agents
- the therapeutic perspectives of newly-discovered molecules
- the rational design of new antimicrobial drugs
- animal models for pharmacological research of infection are an essential asset in this topic.
- Carefully designed clinical studies with chemically characterized plant extracts and pure natural product
Authors are strongly advised to follow the advice as follows:
The title should be concise, clear and appropriately describe the contents of the paper. Do not use unspecified, non-standard abbreviations in the title.
Methods are developing rapidly experimental pharmacology. For instance, for measurement of anti-inflammatory activity in vivo studies, simple in silico and pharmacologically irrelevant assays are not acceptable for assessing an extract or a compound for the activity.
In general we expect that the pharmacological study is linked to local or traditional uses of the species under investigation
Values in tables and text MUST NOT exaggerate the accuracy of the methods used.
Simple in silico and pharmacologically irrelevant assays for antioxidant activity (e.g. the DPPH assay, FRAP (Ferric Reducing Ability of Plasma), ABTS (2,2'-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) are not acceptable as a main tool for assessing an extract or a compound for activity. Such assays are commonly used in food chemistry, which is fine, but it is not of pharmacological relevance.
The selection of a validated and predictive animal and in vitro model is essential to address the clinical question and should meet the standards in ethnopharmacology. The selection, design and conduct of an animal model is highly recommended to assess both efficacy and safety endpoints.
Please provide positive and negative controls in science; the composition of the study material should be described sufficiently; All compounds should be used with clear purity; The identification of the study material should be clear and a voucher specimen must be deposited in an recognized herbarium .Organisms must be named according to the latest available lists of plants and all species are fully validated using http://mpns.kew.org/mpns-portal/ or www.theplantlist.org. It is essential that chemical documentation is provided as complete as possible.
When describing the pharmacokinetic properties of the biochemical that is the active ingredient or active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), pharmacologists are often interested in L-ADME: Liberation – How is the API disintegrated, dispersed, or dissolved from the medication? Absorption – How is the API absorbed (through the intestine, the oral mucosa)? Distribution – How does the API spread through the organism? Metabolism – Is the API converted chemically inside the body? Excretion – How is the API excreted (through urine, breath and skin)?
We encourage the submission of Original Research and Review article types.
Keywords: anti-microbial activity, antioxidant fruits, apoptosis, autophagy, epigenetics, microRNA, natural products, serum biomarker
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
