Spotlight on Neuromuscular Diseases: Pathomechanisms and New Therapeutic Targets

Dear Colleagues,

Neuromuscular diseases (NMD) encompass cellular malfunctions affecting the peripheral nervous system, the neuromuscular junctions or the skeletal muscles or even a combination of such. Although individual entities often qualify as rare diseases, the entire group of NMDs affects a significant number of people of all age groups and further research is urgently needed. Atrophy, degeneration, and inflammation are typical phenomena that can e.g., result from external stimuli, infections, autoimmunity or genetic causes. While ongoing research and our ever-growing knowledge is paving the way for new treatment options, many entities still lack specific treatment options. Here, pre-clinical research is an important prerequisite for the identification and definition of new starting points for therapeutic intervention concepts as well as for patient stratification. 
Along this line, one of the current challenges remains in understanding the underlying disease-specific pathomechanisms and moving toward patient-oriented, individualized treatment. To highlight this need, we provide the current special issue of Cells, which aims to address all forms of neuromuscular diseases. The focus lies on implementation of new developments, studies from basic research to patient stratification, including biomarker discovery and the definition of novel therapeutic targets to clinical applications.
We look forward to your exciting contributions.

Dr. Corinna Preusse
Dr. Sarah Hoffmann
Dr. Andreas Roos
Prof. Dr. Tobias Ruck
Guest Editors

Marie-Therese Holzer
Guest Editor Assistant

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