International Journal of Molecular Medicine Special Issues
Multifactorial setup involved in stemness regulation of drug resistant cancers
Lead Editor:
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Professor Anna De Blasio
University of Palermo
Italy
Cancer is an heterogenous group of diseases depending upon expression of distinct molecular signatures and even characterized by absence of molecular targets useful for therapeutic approaches. Several forms of solid cancers including breast, prostate, ovarian, lung, colon cancer show most aggressiveness features with great metastatic potential, failure in clinical outcome and poor prognosis. Moreover, several pieces of evidence suggest that some forms of cancer are enriched in cancer stem cells (CSCs), which markedly contribute to therapy resistance and failure, a phenomenon defined as multi-drug resistance (MDR), leading to recurrence and an increase in mortality. The dysregulation of stemness pathways is even more enhanced in these forms of cancer, giving a particularly problematic clinical phenotype. Nowadays, there is a constant need to find new and selective molecular targets which could lead to the development of therapeutic target therapy approaches. For example, transcriptome dysregulation, immune microenvironment or cancer cell metabolism can represent valid fields of study. Although it is highly auspicious to identify cancer-cell-specific drugs, nowadays research is still far from achieving this goal. The goal of this Special Issue, entitled “Multifactorial setup involved in stemness regulation of drug resistance cancers” is to collect recent experimental evidence on genetic, epigenetic, metabolic reprogramming, transcriptional and proteomic regulations, biochemical pathways, regulation of stemness and its crosstalk with microenvironment to define novel molecular strategies to challenge the drug resistant features in cancer.
Submission deadline: 10 July 2024
Molecular and Cellular signaling of naturally-occuring molecules and proteins
Lead Editor:
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Professor Cheorl-Ho Kim
Sungkyunkwan University
Republic of Korea
Special issue of Molecular and Cellular signaling of naturally occuring molecules and proteins covers a wide range of signaling molecules such as biosimilar proteins, natural compounds and microbial proteins. The molecules interact with their target extracellular or intracellular receptors to induce cellular and molecular signaling. They eventually cause phenotype changes in cells. For example, anti-inflammatory or pro-inflammatory responses are regulated by the molecules it they bind to target molecules present on cell surfaces and cytoplasmic spaces. Normally, cellular signalings regulated by low molecular weights compounds and receptor-binding ligands have well been known since 1990. Recently, pathogenic bacterial proteins are also being elucidated to interact with their host cells to induce anti- or pro-inflammatory responses through innate immune cells. Therefore, the present special issue covers all the aspect of the above signaling molecules.
Submission deadline: 10 April 2024
The Biology and Clinical Utility of Circulating Tumor Cells
Lead Editor:
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Professor DARIO MARCHETTI
THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
United States
Peripheral blood and other biological fluids were historically investigated to detect and track cancer and metastatic processes. Traditionally, the studies focus on malignant circulant tumour cells (CTCs) and their molecular fingerprint to evaluate disease status and response to treatments. Liquid biopsy is an immature field of research with an enormous potential to facilitate the diagnosis, anticipate the treatment response and improve the final health care of the cancer patient. Currently, liquid biopsy has a myriad of limitations that should be addressed, such as the quantity and quality of material, the correlation of genetic signatures and patient outcomes, and the optimization of the markers collection and analysis. This Special Issue aims to showcase studies and reviews that engage key issues in liquid biopsy/CTC research, gaps in technology, protocols optimization and normalization, comparison of different markers, and correlation with traditional non-liquid biopsy monitoring. The current Special Issue aims to cover novel research trends in the use of CTC assays/liquid biopsy. We welcome the submission of Original Research, Review, Mini Review, Methods, Clinical Trial Perspective, and Opinion articles in the biology of CTCs and their clinical utility in all cancer types and settings.
Submission deadline: 02 June 2024
Biological mediators of periodontitis and oral disease: new insights
Lead Editor:
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Professor Gaetano Isola
University of Catania
Italy
Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory condition of the periodontium involving interactions between bacterial products, numerous cell populations and inflammatory mediators. It is generally accepted that periodontitis is initiated by complex and diverse microbial biofilms which form on the teeth, i.e. dental plaque. Substances released from this biofilm such as lipopolysaccharides, antigens and other virulence factors, gain access to the gingival tissue and initiate an inflammatory and immune response, leading to the activation of host defence cells. As a result of cellular activation, inflammatory mediators, including cytokines, chemokines, arachidonic acid metabolites and proteolytic enzymes, collectively contribute to tissue destruction and bone resorption. The present special issue is aimed at summarising the recent studies on the pathogenesis of periodontitis, with the main focus on inflammatory mediators and their role in periodontal disease. Both pre-clinical and clinical studies are invited to be submitted, as well as narrative or systematic reviews, concerning the characterization of such biomaterials/biological mediators and their clinical applications for the regeneration of intraosseous periodontal defects and furcations, for soft tissue reconstruction (periodontal plastic surgery), for the preservation of post-extraction alveolar sockets and for the reconstruction of lateral and/or vertical bone defects before or contextually to dental implant placement for rehabilitative purposes.
Submission deadline: 30 May 2024
Significance of molecular analyses in the era of personalized tumor therapy
Lead Editor:
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Professor Vladimir Jurisic
University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Medical Sciences
Serbia
The development of modern techniques of molecular biology has led to great progress in better understanding of complex changes during carcinogenesis in basic research, but parallel application in clinical practice has contributed to better diagnosis of tumors. Today, the examination of molecular markers and genetic analyzes is almost unavoidable when making an accurate diagnosis of a tumor, when assessing the prognosis of a disease, as well as for tumor therapy. All this together has contributed to prolonging overall survival and increasing the quality of life of patients with tumors. Therefore, the aim of this special issue is to show the importance of molecular analysis in various types of tumors and to clearly see where we are today and what else can be done to make diagnosis useful in individual therapy and what can be achieved using various techniques and mathematical models of tumor marker analysis in better patient treatment.
Submission deadline: 21 June 2024