New Concepts on the Mechanisms of Inflammation, Autoimmunity and Tumorigenesis

Dear Colleagues,

Most diseases are due to the aberrantly developing responses to external challenges. External factors interfere with the same basic processes, triggering the development of cancer in some cases and autoimmune, or immune-inflammatory, metabolic, or other multifactorial processes in others. Comparisons of genetic underpinnings, epigenetic mechanisms, or the involvement of basic signaling pathways often reveal surprising similarities in the pathogenic mechanisms of otherwise unrelated diseases.

It is likely that the similarities are particularly significant in the earliest, perhaps preclinical, stages, while as the diseases evolve, their paths diverge.

However, even in advanced stages, commonalities in mechanisms and clinical symptoms can be noticeable. This is well known to rheumatologists. As the French physician Seugier elegantly put it, "At the collagenoses' ball, disseminated lupus erythematosus with its wolfish mask; scleroderma dressed in copper; dermatomyositis with porcelain eyelids and periarteritis nodosa in its harlequin tinsel—they are presented as vibrant silhouettes, occupying their own distinct places in the collagenoses' quadrille. But there are masquerades at which the invited guests exchange their masks and become unrecognizable."

Shifting the focus of research to the earliest stages of multifactorial disease development, as well as identifying critical nodes in molecular biological processes for targeted modification, is an extremely promising and exciting approach.

Organizing face-to-face discussion of research approaches and the results obtained by oncologists, rheumatologists, endocrinologists, and other specialists is a fruitful endeavor, as our decade-long experience of holding joint conferences on these fundamental issues demonstrates.

Dr. Marina Arleevskaya
Prof. Dr. Yves Renaudineau
Guest Editors

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. 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.