Diabetes Mellitus is a common disease throughout the world in both developing and developed countries, and its prevalence is still increasing each decade. Diabetes is an outcome of compromised insulin secretion or function leading to hyperglycemia or hyperinsulinemia. Furthermore, high-calorie diets rich in cholesterol and fat have been indicated to trigger the progression of diabetes pathogenesis, leading to obesity and other diabetic complications. The modernization of lifestyle and unhealthy feeding behavior (i.e., junk foods/beverages, high-fat foods) is also promoting insulin resistance and progression towards diabetes.
Managing diabetes is challenging; treatment is expensive and the illness also has high mortality and morbidity. Presently, various synthetic single-targeted oral hypoglycaemic agents (i.e., biguanides, PPAR regulators, SGLT2 inhibitors, and α-amylase/glucosidase inhibitors) cover the major portion of clinically-established drugs for dealing with diabetes mellitus. However, there are concerns about potential multiple side effects and their utility may be limited particularly during pregnancy or in case of risks of nephrotoxicity. In addition, the majority of developing countries with lower income are still dependent on folk medicines either in raw or processed form. In this, Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicines, and other complementary medicines have recorded multiple folk medicines which are being practiced for thousands of years. These medicines, however, are unnoticed regarding their scientific evidence in dealing with diabetes and insulin resistance. In addition, these herbal products are fiber-rich which can be composed or considered in maintaining a healthy diet to act as prophylaxis against diabetes and associated complications.
This suggests the necessity of identifying new lead molecules from traditional folk medicines (as suggested by the World Health Organization) and preventing the progression of insulin resistance by consuming fiber-rich diets. Therefore, this Research Topic aims to identify the probable bioactives from traditional local especially herbal medicines and evaluate the multiple diet composition in dealing the insulin resistance.
We welcome articles including but not limited to:
• Identifying the probable bioactives from ethnopharmacologically recorded medicines against diabetes using system biology (network analysis, molecular docking, and dynamics simulation) in a combination with pharmacological evaluations using an (in vitro and in vivo) experimental approach (note studies using solely in silico approaches are outside of the our scope);
• Understanding the chemoprophylaxis of a fiber-rich diet in dealing with diabetes and its involvement in preventing glucose absorption from the gastrointestinal tract;
• ‘Identifying probable bioactives from local medicines as possible agent stimulating glycogenesis, inhibiting the hepatic gluconeogenesis, and promoting the renal excretion of the glucose;
• Identification of the active principles from traditional medicinal plants in diabetes mellitus and insulin resistance via LC-MS metabonomics in combination with pharmacological experiments;
• Understanding the bioactives-proteins-pathways interaction of herbal mixtures with the proteins/targets involved in diabetes and insulin resistance;
• Identification of bioactives involved in modulating postprandial hyperglycemia via the inhibition of α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and lipase.
Also a special note to potential authors, please remember, also in view of the large number of studies claiming anti-diabetic effects, data on chemical characterization and botanical sources are an important aspect, and the composition of the study material must be described in sufficient detail (See Pillar 2).
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Note to author: 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).