Facing the complex giant system of the human body, single targeted component drugs have become more and more clumsy in the treatment of chronic complex diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and chronic kidney disease. For their pathological mechanisms are intricate and complex, chronic complex diseases often involved in multiple targets continuously systemic changes, which brings great difficulties in clinical treatment with single target drug therapy. Thus, chronic complex diseases nowadays are prominent medical challenges facing society, which have seriously threatened human health.
In this regard, traditional medicines bring us inspiration: to deal with the imbalance of human’s great complex system, complicated drug combinations may be one of the major treatment means in the future. However, intricate drug combination is an important scientific issue rather than disorderly stacking or simple polymerization, needs permanent multi-disciplinary scientific research to figure out how to make a reasonable and organic combination, and which how to act on multiple targets to exert the best therapeutic effect, and avoiding toxic and side effects. Therefore, to encourage scholars to explore together, this journal has established a column named “multi-component and multi-target drugs in the therapy of chronic complex diseases”, to promote our understanding of the multi-target therapy in chronic complex diseases, as well as advances in multi-component drug discovery and their mechanism.
This research topic will cover the following subtopics: the studies of multi-targets in complex diseases development and treatment, screening and discovering methods of multi-component drugs, as well as the effects and mechanisms of the multi-target drug in the treatment of chronic complex diseases. Human, animal, and in vitro models are welcome. Original research articles, reviews, or methods focused on but not restricted to the following areas are encouraged:
• Studies of multi-targets in complex diseases development and treatment (e.g., multi-targets screening, or how multiple targets coordinate regulated complex diseases, or to construct its potential multi-target networks with by genomics, proteomics, or other methods).
• Screening and discovering methods of multi-component drugs (e.g., multi-target protein affinity screening or high-throughput and high-content screening with 3D cultured organoid or organ-on-a-chip).
• Studies investigating the effects and mechanisms of multi-target drugs (e.g., single component to multi-target, multi-component to single target, and multi-component to multi-target in complex diseases treatment).
• Clinical evaluation or protocols of multi-component drugs in the treatment of chronic complex diseases (e.g., clinical effects of multi-component, drug combination, or multiple active compounds of traditional medicine).
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. The process of extraction needs to be described in sufficient detail (solvent, protocol, drug – solvent ratio) and the drug extract ratio must be stated based on the mass (g:g). It is not acceptable to only provide the equivalent of the crude drug that has been used in extraction. All manuscripts submitted need to fully comply with the Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology. You can freely download the full version here. Each MS must include a substantial pharmacological contribution. In silico network analyses are outside of our scope since they are far too preliminary and of no pharmacological relevance. Also, the composition incl. preparation must be stated unambiguously (including the amount of each drug in a polyherbal preparation and the extraction procedure) and the complete species and drug name must be included. All (!!) species must be validated taxonomically (e.g. http://mpns.kew.org/mpns-portal or http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org) Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
Facing the complex giant system of the human body, single targeted component drugs have become more and more clumsy in the treatment of chronic complex diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and chronic kidney disease. For their pathological mechanisms are intricate and complex, chronic complex diseases often involved in multiple targets continuously systemic changes, which brings great difficulties in clinical treatment with single target drug therapy. Thus, chronic complex diseases nowadays are prominent medical challenges facing society, which have seriously threatened human health.
In this regard, traditional medicines bring us inspiration: to deal with the imbalance of human’s great complex system, complicated drug combinations may be one of the major treatment means in the future. However, intricate drug combination is an important scientific issue rather than disorderly stacking or simple polymerization, needs permanent multi-disciplinary scientific research to figure out how to make a reasonable and organic combination, and which how to act on multiple targets to exert the best therapeutic effect, and avoiding toxic and side effects. Therefore, to encourage scholars to explore together, this journal has established a column named “multi-component and multi-target drugs in the therapy of chronic complex diseases”, to promote our understanding of the multi-target therapy in chronic complex diseases, as well as advances in multi-component drug discovery and their mechanism.
This research topic will cover the following subtopics: the studies of multi-targets in complex diseases development and treatment, screening and discovering methods of multi-component drugs, as well as the effects and mechanisms of the multi-target drug in the treatment of chronic complex diseases. Human, animal, and in vitro models are welcome. Original research articles, reviews, or methods focused on but not restricted to the following areas are encouraged:
• Studies of multi-targets in complex diseases development and treatment (e.g., multi-targets screening, or how multiple targets coordinate regulated complex diseases, or to construct its potential multi-target networks with by genomics, proteomics, or other methods).
• Screening and discovering methods of multi-component drugs (e.g., multi-target protein affinity screening or high-throughput and high-content screening with 3D cultured organoid or organ-on-a-chip).
• Studies investigating the effects and mechanisms of multi-target drugs (e.g., single component to multi-target, multi-component to single target, and multi-component to multi-target in complex diseases treatment).
• Clinical evaluation or protocols of multi-component drugs in the treatment of chronic complex diseases (e.g., clinical effects of multi-component, drug combination, or multiple active compounds of traditional medicine).
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. The process of extraction needs to be described in sufficient detail (solvent, protocol, drug – solvent ratio) and the drug extract ratio must be stated based on the mass (g:g). It is not acceptable to only provide the equivalent of the crude drug that has been used in extraction. All manuscripts submitted need to fully comply with the Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology. You can freely download the full version here. Each MS must include a substantial pharmacological contribution. In silico network analyses are outside of our scope since they are far too preliminary and of no pharmacological relevance. Also, the composition incl. preparation must be stated unambiguously (including the amount of each drug in a polyherbal preparation and the extraction procedure) and the complete species and drug name must be included. All (!!) species must be validated taxonomically (e.g. http://mpns.kew.org/mpns-portal or http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org) Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.