Current Methods for Detecting and Diagnosing Stem Cell Pathogenesis: A Focus on Translational Interventions in the Contemporary Disease and Technology Landscape

Although the area of stem cell pathogenesis has been dealt with great interest until now, the need to probe further using the modern scientific techniques and instruments is necessary to address the mechanisms of pathogenesis and interventions of the currently emerging infectious and non-communicable diseases. The advantages with the rapidly developing new technological methods are that they yield greater understanding of the disease onset and cures for the improved benefits of relief from the sufferings caused by the emerging illnesses. In disease, understanding how external factors affect parent stem cell progenitors and subsequently cause changes in genetic mutations, gene expression, epigenetics, cell differentiation, signaling pathways, and cell lineage fate, is crucial as these cellular components engage in pathogenesis. All these changes that take place in vivo necessarily implicate intra- and inter-cellular interactions in the development and corrections of pathogenesis.

Lineage commitment is an intrinsic attribute or characteristic of stem-progenitor cells which are pluripotent or multipotent precursors possessing the potential to further differentiate into downstream or terminal lineages respectively. The current technological advances existing in single-cell nucleotide sequencing as well as proteomics enable the dissection of the mechanisms that were not possible earlier. Consequently, and naturally, molecular entities such as small miRNA or peptides as tools for therapeutic treatments to set the intrinsic cellular malfunctions into a correctional mode are at our disposal. Discovery of the involvement and identification of these small molecular factors with natural compatibility in molecular and cellular biochemistry or biology, if investigated with modern tools rather thoroughly, may be well expected to deliver fewer side effects to the treated patients. This could be due to the potential titrations of the drug candidates that can compensate for the systemic shortcomings or needs of the biologically intrinsic and compatible drugs during the manufacture to undertake clinical trials. A naturally occurring stem cell lineage commitment or differentiation that may be dependent upon a differential modulation of small molecular nucleotides or growth factor peptides can be more easily assayed ex vivo and in vitro. These reagents more akin to the natural biology assay methods can be used to set up the dosage requirements in the use of traditional/conventional mechanisms cum modern approaches.

This research topic is proposed to invite articles on the following themes but is not specifically exclusive and open to related or broader subject matter of stem cell research.
• Techniques applied in stem cell research: Single-cell transcriptomics, Single-cell proteomics, Single-(stem) cell sequencing
• Involved RNA types and gene expression in stem cells: Non-coding long and small RNA in stem cells, Dys/regulation of stem cell gene expression
• Stem cell differentiation and lineage
• Stem cell roles in various diseases: Cancer stem cells and leukemias, Infectious disease, In immune regulation, etc
• Advancements in stem cell applications: Biological molecules for stem cell therapies, Stem cells in vaccines
• Artificial intelligence in stem cells

We accept different article types including Original Research articles, Mini-Reviews, Brief Research Reports, and Perspectives. A full list of accepted article types, including descriptions, can be found at this link.





Figure caption: Virus (SARS-CoV-2) – ACE2+ progenitor stem cell interaction: suggestive influence on lineage commitment, differentiation and cell-fate (concept 3D rendering)