About this Research Topic

Background

This Research Topic is part of a series with:
Bone and Cartilage Diseases – The Role and Potential of Natural Products

Traditional medicinal plants and nutraceuticals are often applicable in the therapeutic management of bone and cartilage diseases, and the secondary metabolites are the main effective agents responsible for their pharmacological activities. These metabolites can be flavonoids, alkaloids, coumarins, saponins, etc. Hopefully, the metabolites provide a great resource to develop new potential drugs. For example, salicylic acid, an inhibitor of COX-2, is the first natural compound used in the treatment of osteoarthritis. Also, the estrogen-like activity of some prenylated flavonoids has triggered interest in exploring their potential for the therapeutic management of osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. However, it is essential to explore how the metabolites interact with bone and cartilage in disease states.

The pathological mechanisms of bone and cartilage diseases are orchestrated by dysregulated signaling pathways, which disrupt the homeostasis by the induction of catabolic factors as well as down regulation of anabolic factors. A large number of studies reveal that many signaling pathways, such as the NF-κB pathway, MAPK pathway, TLR pathway, as well as Wnt/β-catenin, TGFβ, and Notch pathways, have been involved in regulating the development of bone and cartilage diseases, and the key factors in these signaling pathways might be potential targets for new drugs. Thus, understanding the molecular mechanisms offers an avenue for scientists to explore the potential interaction between plant secondary metabolites and the bone and cartilage diseases.

There are three main foci within this Research Topic exploring natural products’ (potential) contribution to the therapeutic management of bone and cartilage diseases.

• The evaluation of herbal medicines and natural products for potential activity, and their potential in regulating the pathological processes of bone and cartilage diseases.
• The identification of specific targets of individual natural products contributing to a better understanding of their mechanisms of action.
• Contributions to the clinical and primary healthcare applications of the candidate drugs in the management of bone and cartilage diseases.

Overall, by exploring these three primary themes, we hope to develop new natural sources-derived candidate therapeutics, which have explicit pharmacological activity against bone and cartilage diseases.

In this Research Topic, we welcome Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Opinion, and Perspective. The subtopics are as follows, but not limited to:

• Evaluation of the pharmacological activity of natural products against bone and cartilage diseases in vivo and in vitro.
• Extraction and analysis of medicinal ingredients of various plant-based products with pharmacological activity against bone and cartilage diseases. If it is a mixture, it requires constituent analysis and quality control by chromatographic analysis or/and mass spectrometry.
• Clinical research of secondary metabolites or traditional medicines with pharmacological activity against bone and cartilage diseases.
• The toxicological effects of secondary metabolites on bone and cartilage diseases.

One can find more information about the Article Types guidelines in the Ethnopharmacology section here).

All the manuscripts submitted to this project will be peer-reviewed and need to fully comply with the Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology (you can freely download the full version here).

Importantly, the description of the study material must comply with the ConPhyMP guidelines (see here)

Keywords: Secondary metabolites, signaling pathway, bone, cartilage, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, medicinal plants, target protein, #CollectionSeries

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.

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