Zinc Signaling in Physiology and Pathogenesis

Dear Colleagues,

The essential trace element zinc plays indispensable roles in multiple cellular processes. It regulates a great number of protein functions, including transcription factors, enzymes, adapters, and growth factors as a structural and/or catalytic factor. Recent studies have highlighted another function of zinc as an intra- and intercellular signaling mediator, which became recognized as the “zinc signal”. Indeed, zinc regulates cellular signaling pathways, which enable conversion of extracellular stimuli to intracellular signals, and controls various intracellular and extracellular events, and thus zinc mediates communication between cells. The zinc signal is essential for physiology, and its dysregulation causes a variety of diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, osteoarthritis, dermatitis, and dementia.

This Special Issue focuses on crucial roles of zinc signaling in biological processes in molecular and physiological basis, addressing the future directions and questions underlying this unique phenomenon. Because there is growing interest and attention in physiopathological contribution of zinc signal, we believe this Special Issue will provide very timely information on it and thus should appeal to a wide range of readers.

The International Society for Zinc Biology Conference 2017 (ISZB-2017, http://www.uclan.ac.uk/conference_events/iszb-meeting-zino-net.php) will be held at Cyprus in 18-22 June 2017. All attendees presenting a paper at this conference are welcome to submit a manuscript for publication (Deadline: 30 September 2017). For further information, please contact the Editorial Office (ijms@mdpi.com or olivia.yu@mdpi.com).

Prof. Dr. Toshiyuki Fukada  (ISZB board member)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Taiho Kambe (ISZB Secretary)
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.