Chronic illnesses, such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, are major risk factors for global mortality and morbidity. Although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, accumulating evidence has reported that oxidative stress and cell death play an important role in the pathogenesis and development of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis, myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, and congestive heart failure to name a few.
Under physiological conditions, oxygen and nitrogen free radicals serve as messengers, but an accumulation of reactive oxygen species will induce oxidative stress, which leads to a disruption in the tissue homeostasis and cell death. Programmed cell death is described as the regulated form of death executed by highly organized intracellular cascade pathways. There are three types of programmed cell death that have been identified based on morphological criteria: apoptosis, autophagy, and necroptosis. Although there has been numerous research looking into the role of oxidative stress and programmed cell death in metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, we do not yet have a comprehensive understanding, especially, when it comes to the interaction between oxidative stress and cell death, and between different types of programmed cell death. Consequently, more studies on how restricting oxidative stress and cell death could be beneficial in the amelioration of cardiovascular diseases are warranted. Moreover, it is also important to note that chemical anti-oxidant assays such as the DPPH assay are of no pharmacological relevance as there is no evidence for therapeutic benefits on the basis of such assays and the use and development of other assays must be addressed.
Recently, many studies have highlighted that new bioactive natural compounds can serve as agents for the prevention and treatment of chronic metabolic disorders, including cardiovascular diseases. Natural bioactive compounds can be modified to increase their effectiveness by enhancing bioavailability and decreasing the unwanted side effects. The implementation of prevention and treatment programs for metabolic disorders and cardiac ischemic diseases with the use of natural products have shown promising outcomes, such as a decrease in the mortality rate of some patients. However, a large number of these natural products still remain unexplored, and a more comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanistic aspects of their beneficial effects is necessary.
With this Research Topic, we welcome Original Research articles discussing the effect of natural products on oxidative stress and programmed cell death (including apoptosis, autophagic cell death, necroptosis and other death types) in conditions such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, studies that aim to further clarify the signaling pathways and regulatory mechanisms during these pathophysiological processes will also be considered.
The following themes, including but not limited to, are of interest:
• Extraction and purification of natural functional ingredients and the beneficial properties they can have on diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases.
• Use of natural bioactive compounds for the prevention and treatment of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases by targeting oxidative stress or programmed cell death.
• Novel underlying mechanisms of action in cardiovascular diseases in relation to oxidative stress or programmed cell death.
• New technologies used to find the optimal pharmaceutical formulation of natural bioactive compounds (e.g nanoformulation, exosomal/liposomal delivery) when it comes to the pharmacotherapy of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases.
Important note: The traditional context must be described in the introduction and supported with bibliographical primary references. It is possible to base your study on modern uses of a plant in general healthcare.
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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).