Research Advances in Micro-Immunotherapy and Low Doses-Based Therapies

Dear Colleagues,

The relationship between drug dose and clinical efficacy is complex and not easily quantifiable. While side effects and allergic reactions commonly increase with the dose employed, the greatest clinical benefits are not always guaranteed by dose escalation, and, on the contrary, a better balance between benefits and risks for the patient could be achieved with lower doses.

A growing body of evidence in fundamental research explains how organisms and cells respond to low doses of stimuli. Studies have demonstrated that cells exhibit remarkable sensitivity to cytokines and other signaling molecules, with a single molecule even capable of activating a cell, triggering various biological responses, or stimulating the immune system.

In parallel, numerous studies support the theory of hormesis, which postulates that non-linear biological responses can reach greater effects with lower concentrations. This concept has significant medical implications in the domains of pharmacology and applied research.  

Furthermore, the emerging field of research on low dose therapies has yielded promising results and calls for further explorations and studies. The approach of micro-immunotherapy is particularly noteworthy as it utilizes low doses and ultra-low doses of immune regulators to either bolster the host’s defenses or mitigate immune responses in the context of inflammatory-mediated diseases.

This Special Issue aims to provide up-to-date data through fundamental, preclinical, and/or clinical research studies on the emerging field of micro-immunotherapy, low dose medicine, or low dose therapies, thus creating a valuable resource and a comprehensive collection of papers in this specialized area of research.

We kindly invite researchers and healthcare professionals to submit original research articles, reviews to Life addressing topics pertinent to this issue.

All submitted papers will undergo a rigorous peer review process by experts in the field.

Dr. Ilaria Floris
Dr. Camille Jacques
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. Life is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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.