Microbiota, Inflammation and Systemic Diseases

Dear Colleagues,

The human body is populated by an estimated 10¹⁴, bacteria constituting an ecological system (microbiota) which communicates with the host using an array of neural, hormonal, humoral, immune, and metabolic pathways.

Increasing evidence has supported that many systemic diseases are associated with disturbances in the oral ecosystem, including diabetes, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, and tumours. The most prevalent of these are periodontal diseases, and are defined as microbiota-associated diseases. Oral commensal bacteria induce dysbiosis by impairing innate host defences, can block phagocytosis, and promote inflammation-activating signalling pathways and anti-apoptotic molecules, mediating in this way the activation of transcription factors associated with inflammation and sometimes cancer development.

Complex interactions among oral and gut microbiota, inflammation, environmental exposures, and host genetics are needed for the onset of disease.

Therefore, microbiota–host interaction is an interesting area of research which may contribute to new insights into various somatic, immune, and neurodegenerative diseases, with opportunities for the development of interventions.

This Special Issue of Cells invites both original research and review articles to analyse metabolic pathways potentially associated with changes in microbiota occurring during the disease.

It is my hope that the papers submitted to this Special Issue will provide the scientific community with increased knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying these diseases.

Dr. Maria Cristina Curia
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cells is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.