Caenorhabditis Elegans: A Model Organism for Research on Medicinal Plants and Their Metabolites

Caenorhabditis elegans is a classic model animal and has greatly contributed to life science. For example, using C. elegans as the animal model, the development of different aspects has been thoroughly elucidated. Meanwhile, this animal model has been widely used for the study of pharmacology and toxicology due to the well-described molecular and genetic backgrounds, and the high sensitivity to various compounds and environmental exposures. With the advancement of biological studies and attention to the mechanisms of diseases, some relevant pathological models have been established in C. elegans. These lay the important foundation for systematic pharmacological work in C. elegans at the whole animal level.

In this Research Topic, we invite the submission of manuscripts exploring the specific opportunities and challenges for using C. elegans in natural product driven drug discovery, and pharmacodynamics. We invited the submission of manuscripts on pharmacological effects and underlying mechanisms of medicinal plant extracts, metabolites and other natural products using C. elegans, especially the pathological models in C. elegans. The first aim of this Research Topic is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the value of model animal C. elegans in ethnopharmacological research. The second aim of this Research Topic is to highlight the usefulness of established pathological models in the ethnopharmacological study of different aspects of C. elegans.

The scope of this Research Topic includes but is not limited to:
• Natural product driven drug screening and drug discovery using pathological models
• Pharmacological effects and mechanisms of medicinal plant extracts. metabolites, and other natural products
• Identification of biologically active metabolites in medicinal plants and other nature derived medicines like fungi

In particular we encourage MS using this model organism in the are of ethnopharmacology focusing on
• Neurological disease models including different stress models’
• Metabolic diseases and disorders

All the 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) and specifically MS need to comply with the ConPhyMP standards (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2020.00765/full)