Dear Colleagues,

Phospholipid signaling is among the most important signal transduction pathways, essential for effective cellular responses, and regulation of homeostasis. Phospholipid signaling can integrate complex signals in space and time, and plays key roles in controlling a variety of cellular processes, such as metabolism, proliferation, differentiation, shape, motility, stemness, and death. This broad functional potential of phospholipid signaling derives from the structural and spatiotemporally diversity of phospholipids. Indeed, phospholipids, with their glycerol-phospholipid and sphingo-phospholipid classes, constitute a large superfamily of membrane lipids, exhibiting an extraordinary structure heterogeneity, mainly derived from their diversity in the hydrophobic acyl/sphingoid tails, which add a high level of complexity to that conferred by the polar head group. These molecules exhibit diverse and dynamic profiles, including multiple locations in either specific membrane microdomains, or different subcellular sites, or extracellular vesicles and extracellular fluids.

The large and structurally complex group of signaling phospholipids occurs through a complex and dynamic network of metabolic events, regulated by multiple enzymes, highly responsive to extracellular and intracellular factors. Moreover, the number of effectors that exist, even within a single cell, adds complexity downstream of phospholipid signaling activation. A further strength of phospholipid signaling resides in the generation of lysophospholipids, small lipid signals, secreted by some cell types that act as autocrine/paracrine signals through binding to specific receptors, and regulate different key processes ranging from embryo development to neurogenesis, angiogenesis, and immune response. Given the key role and the wide array of cell regulatory functions of phospholipid signaling, its dysregulation is at the root of many diseases. Evidence has recently accumulated showing that defects in phospholipid signaling occur in, and contribute to the onset of a range of pathological conditions, including atherosclerosis, viral infections, cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders. Pharmacological manipulation of membrane phospholipid composition and phospholipid signaling may provide new therapeutic modalities for different diseases.

This Special Issue seeks original research and review articles in the field of phospholipid signaling, providing recent advances, new concepts, and ideas concerning the mechanisms underlying phospholipid signaling in health and disease. Suggested potential topics include new aspects of phospholipid signaling; phospholipid signaling in extracellular vesicles and extracellular fluids; transcriptional control by phospholipid signaling; modulation of phospholipid signaling by stress signals and inflammation; advances in phospholipid signaling in diseases; therapeutic strategies targeting phospholipid signaling.

Prof. Laura Riboni
Guest Editor

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• phospholipid signalling
• lysophospholipids
• phospholipases
• lipid kinases
• lipid phosphatases

• Phospholipids: Dynamic Lipid Signaling in Health and Diseases in Cells (8 articles)