Ethnopharmacology, Omics, and Epigenetic Modulation: Modern Approaches to Harnessing Medicinal Plants for Neurodegenerative Disease Therapy

Neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and others, represent some of the most challenging and urgent medical needs worldwide. Despite significant advances in neuroscience, existing therapies remain mostly symptomatic, and disease-modifying treatments are desperately needed.

Traditional medicine systems and plant-based ethnopharmacology provide an invaluable source of bioactive compounds, including unique secondary metabolites from underexplored lower vascular plants (ferns, lycophytes, and related taxa). These resources, along with classical medicinal plants, offer unique chemical diversity and new scaffolds for the development of neurotherapeutics.

Modern omics and computational biology (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, cheminformatics, and machine learning) now make it possible to systematically identify, characterize, and optimize such bioactive molecules, revealing mechanisms and accelerating translation to the clinic.

A special emphasis of this collection will be on the epigenetic modulation of neurodegenerative diseases, how plant-derived compounds and herbal formulations may impact gene expression via DNA methylation, histone modification, chromatin remodeling, and non-coding RNA pathways, as well as the use of novel genome-editing technologies.

We welcome studies that include, but are not limited to:

• Omics-based identification, isolation, and mechanism-of-action studies on bioactive compounds from medicinal plants (including lower vascular plants).

• Epigenetic mechanisms underlying neuroprotection: Investigating DNA methylation, histone modification, chromatin remodeling, ncRNA, and CRISPR-based approaches modulated by phytochemicals.

• Transcriptomic and proteomic analyses for discovery of novel therapeutic targets in neurodegenerative pathology.

• High-throughput screening (HTS) and in silico drug discovery (cheminformatics, molecular docking, AI/ML) for identifying and optimizing neuroactive compounds.

• Integrating experimental pharmacological approaches with exploratory systems pharmacology and network analysis of polyherbal/traditional medicine formulations for multifactorial neuroprotection and disease modification.

• Phytochemical profiling, isolation, synthetic and semi-synthetic strategies for neuroprotective agents.

• Preclinical and clinical investigations of efficacy, safety, pharmacokinetics, and toxicity.

• Evaluation of cognitive, behavioral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroregenerative effects in in vitro and in vivo models.

• Integration of ethnomedicinal knowledge with contemporary scientific methods to bridge traditional wisdom and modern evidence-based medicine.

• Reviews and perspectives synthesizing current trends in omics, epigenetics, and computational ethnopharmacology for neurodegeneration.

This Research Topic encourages original research, reviews, and multidisciplinary collaborations uniting ethnopharmacologists, neuroscientists, data scientists, pharmacologists, chemists, and clinicians. Our goal is to accelerate the discovery and validation of next-generation neurotherapeutics inspired by traditional medicine and empowered by modern science.

Studies need to comply with the best practice guidelines of the section if plant or fungal extracts or other complex mixtures are investigated including the Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology. A detailed description of the material studied, its extraction, and processing is essential. You can freely download the full version here. Please self-assess your MS using the ConPhyMP tool, and follow the standards established in the ConPhyMP statement Front. Pharmacol. 13:953205. Please note the traditional context including the primary background and modern uses with supporting references must be included in the manuscript introduction. Purely in silico approaches using complex mixtures (extracts) are generally not considered.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• ... View all formats

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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Ethnopharmacology, Omics, Epigenetic Modulation, Neurodegenerative Disease, Transcriptomic and proteomic analyses, High-throughput screening, Phytochemicals, Preclinical and clinical investigations

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.