Active metabolites of traditional medicines are essential for understanding the medicinal utility or physiological activity of such medicines and these metabolites are essential sources for new drug discovery playing an outstanding role in innovative drug development. Due to their structural diversity and extensive sources, the metabolites with remarkable pharmacological activities such as antitumor, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral have become popular research areas. With the in-depth research on the metabolites, many potential innovative drugs with unique pharmacological activity and efficacy have been identified, however, it is notable that they suffer from serious deficiencies such as high toxicity, poor solubility, low bioavailability, drug resistance, and destabilization, leading to great limitations in clinical application. Therefore, there is an imperative demand to employ modern technologies and methods to achieve innovative drugs by skilfully processing the metabolites with restricted applications, and to conduct in-depth pharmacological studies in vitro and in vivo to elucidate their relevant protein targets and mechanisms in order to comply with the requirements of clinical drug application.
Although a portion of metabolites is currently available as first-line clinical therapeutic agents following well-established pharmacological evaluation, the general challenges of efficacy and high toxicity of metabolites remain the most prominent reasons for their sluggish development. The purpose of this research topic is to encourage researchers from all over the world to investigate the pharmacology and clinical efficacy of monomeric ingredient derivatives for the treatment of diseases based on the relationship between metabolites and target proteins, through scientific and rational optimization of the structures, emphasizing the relationship between pharmacological efficacy and drug structures, to achieve the discovery of novel metabolites with enhanced efficacy and reduced toxicity. And based on the modernization technology of TCM, we also welcome research on the rational utilization of new technologies and formulations to improve the aggregation concentration of metabolites in the lesions and reduce their impairment to normal tissues, so as to realize the purpose of increasing effectiveness and reducing toxicity. Moreover, we also appreciate innovative targeted metabolites conjugates with well-defined targets based on ligand drug technology. Scientific rigor is particularly important, and the research demonstrate a clearly defined hypothesis or testable research question.
This Research Topic welcomes original research articles focusing on the study of methods to enhance the efficacy and reduce the toxicity of metabolites. Review articles will also be considered. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
• Structural modification and optimization of metabolites for the purpose of enhancement and toxicity reduction
• Novel formations of metabolites
• Metabolites conjugates based on the targeted ligand technology
Submissions must include a brief explanation of the traditional applications of the metabolites, and the submitted manuscript must include a certain pharmacological research basis.
Manuscripts about clinical trials will only be accepted for review if they include randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled.
Studies of crude extracts or polyherbal preparations will not be accepted. Pharmacological studies of metabolites or derivatives with high purity and structural characterization are the minimum criteria for submissions.
Original research based only on computer technology and network analysis is not eligible for review. We draw the authors attention to the need for a full description of the botanical material under study. All submissions to the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology using plant extracts or preparations must also adhere to the
Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology (you can freely download the full version
here).
