Exploring Circadian Clock Effects on Disease Diagnosis, Progression, and Therapeutic Approaches
A special issue of Diagnostics (ISSN 2075-4418). This special issue belongs to the section "Clinical Laboratory Medicine".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 1452
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Circadian clocks are endogenous oscillators that govern an organism’s 24-hour physiological and behavioral rhythms. The central circadian clock orchestrates various facets of mammalian physiology, including sleep regulation, metabolism, and immune function. Biological timing is crucial for maintaining the body's homeostasis, and any disruptions in the biological synchronization mechanisms have significant pathological consequences. Recent studies have revealed the significant consequences of circadian rhythm disruption, which can stem from intrinsic factors such as clock gene mutations and aging or extrinsic factors such as shift work, jet lag, and nutritional imbalances. These disruptions have been associated with a range of disorders, including infectious diseases, insomnia, inflammation, compromised immune function, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, hypertension, depression, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Targeting the circadian clock presents a promising strategy to alleviate these issues. Chronobiology, the study of time-related biological processes, has gained increasing attention in disease management and diagnosis.
In this Special Issue, we invite our colleagues to contribute their original research articles, reviews, mini-reviews, methods, and commentaries focusing on a range of sub-topics that delve into the intricate connection between the circadian clock and diseases.
Examining circadian variability in evaluating biomarkers for research and clinical practice and ensuring accurate quantification. The following topics are of particular interest to this Special Issue:
- Clinical, experimental, or mechanistic evidence indicating that circadian clock components can function, whether directly or indirectly, as biomarkers for the early diagnosis or progression of diseases including but not limited to cancer, obesity, neurodegenerative conditions, and metabolic disorders, and studies that offer potential avenues for improving and managing the conditions by targeting circadian clock.
- Studies providing compelling evidence supporting the influence of chronobiology on the effectiveness of disease screenings. Furthermore, findings that emphasize and optimize the timing of screenings to align with circadian variations and how they could affect efficacy.
- Research studies that inspect circadian impacts on microbial growth, infections, and immune responses as well as the role of the circadian clock in influencing immunity development or disruptions leading to autoimmune disorders, along with the regulation of innate and adaptive immunity. Studies focusing on enhancing the diagnostic accuracy for infectious diseases and improving treatment efficacy by strategically targeting the circadian clock and immunity.
- Research demonstrating how circadian insights influence the precision of treatment in clinical decision support systems.
Dr. Baharan Fekry
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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. Diagnostics 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 2600 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.
Keywords
- circadian clocks
- circadian rhythm disorders
- diagnosis
- management
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