About this Research Topic
A balanced diet is recognized as a relevant promoter of physiological immunity, particularly because specific food components may bind to immune cell surface receptors, inducing signalling pathways that modulate the immune system. This might be especially important to fight viral infections, considering the high transmission rates and severity of symptoms, besides the complexity in finding effective treatments when novel strains emerge, despite the plethora of available antiviral drugs. Many foods (e.g., fruits, vegetables, olive oil, fish, seaweed, nuts and seeds, or herbs) contain immune-boosting compounds (e.g., unsaturated fatty-acids, proteins, vitamins, minerals, phenolic compounds, sulphated polysaccharides, or terpenoids) that were described as exerting antiviral activities. These effects include hampering viral adsorption and absorption to the cell surface, inhibiting pro-inflammatory mediators, promoting anti-inflammatory functions, modulating cell-mediated immunity, or intermediating innate and adaptive immune system.
Food has long been considered as a natural source of unique bioactive compounds that may comprise essential components of preventive approaches, act as important coadjuvants in curative strategies, or represent the starting point for new therapeutic agents. This is even more important under the current worsening of drug resistance and the emergence of new viral agents, which widens the need for alternative and complementary solutions, such as those embodied by reinforcing diet with natural antiviral foods with validated effectiveness.
This Research Topic invites research papers, review papers, and short reports on recent advances in the field of natural antiviral agents, covering all aspects from basic science to applied clinical research. Topics include, but are not limited to, in vitro and in vivo evaluation of antiviral activities, namely:
a) direct inactivation of viruses;
b) inhibition of viral adsorption and invasion; inhibition of virus transcription and replication;
c) blockage of virus release from cells.
The reported activities should have been characterized in whole extracts or individual compounds, preferably obtained from food matrices or other natural products.
Submitted manuscripts must be original and should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Author guidelines page.
Specifically for manuscripts dealing with extracts, and pharmacological/toxicological effects, please self-assess your manusceript using the ConPhyMP tool (https://ga-online.org/best-practice/), and follow the standards established in the ConPhyMP statement Front. Pharmacol. 13:953205. All the manuscripts need to fully comply with the Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology. Importantly, please ascertain that the ethnopharmacological context is clearly described (pillar 3d) and that the material investigated is characterized in detail (pillars 2 a and b).
Food has long been considered as a natural source of unique bioactive compounds that may comprise essential components of preventive approaches, act as important coadjuvants in curative strategies, or represent the starting point for new therapeutic agents. This is even more important under the current worsening of drug resistance and the emergence of new viral agents, which widens the need for alternative and complementary solutions, such as those embodied by reinforcing diet with natural antiviral foods with validated effectiveness.
This Research Topic invites research papers, review papers, and short reports on recent advances in the field of natural antiviral agents, covering all aspects from basic science to applied clinical research. Topics include, but are not limited to, in vitro and in vivo evaluation of antiviral activities, namely:
a) direct inactivation of viruses;
b) inhibition of viral adsorption and invasion; inhibition of virus transcription and replication;
c) blockage of virus release from cells.
The reported activities should have been characterized in whole extracts or individual compounds, preferably obtained from food matrices or other natural products.
Submitted manuscripts must be original and should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Author guidelines page.
Specifically for manuscripts dealing with extracts, and pharmacological/toxicological effects, please self-assess your manusceript using the ConPhyMP tool (https://ga-online.org/best-practice/), and follow the standards established in the ConPhyMP statement Front. Pharmacol. 13:953205. All the manuscripts need to fully comply with the Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology. Importantly, please ascertain that the ethnopharmacological context is clearly described (pillar 3d) and that the material investigated is characterized in detail (pillars 2 a and b).
Keywords: Natural antiviral agents, Antiviral activity methodologies, Functional foods, Structural-activity relationship, Dietary guidelines
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.
