Natural Products for Chronic Disease: Mechanisms and Applications
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025
Special Issue Editors
Interests: herbal medicine; pharmacology; active compound; fatty liver disease; analytical chemistry
Interests: evidence-based practice; bee venom; nutrition; reproduction; cancer; natural medicine
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Chronic diseases, including fatty liver diseases, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, neurodegenerative conditions, and certain cancers, represent a growing global health crisis, driven by aging populations, sedentary lifestyles, and environmental factors. Natural products, encompassing extracts and bioactive compounds derived from plants, animals, and microorganisms, have long been recognized as pivotal sources of therapeutic leads. At the molecular level, natural products modulate key pathways implicated in chronic disease pathogenesis. Mechanistic insights into the natural products require systems-level approaches that commonly transcend traditional single-target analysis. Recent advances in multi-omics, network pharmacology, and single-cell sequencing now provide a global snapshot of molecular perturbations induced by natural products, enabling unprecedented resolution of their pharmacological effects. Such multi-layered insights are critical for translating natural products into targeted therapies, and ensuring their efficacy is rooted in precise molecular and cellular mechanisms. Translational progress includes preclinical studies assessing efficacy in animal models and clinical trials validating disease remission. However, critical challenges hinder broader application, including poor bioavailability, off-target biological effects, and ill-defined structure–activity relationships. To address these barriers, innovative strategies are emerging: nanocarrier-mediated delivery systems enhance targeted accumulation at disease sites, prodrug designs improve pharmacokinetic profiles, and multi-omics-guided target deconvolution clarifies mechanistic specificity. Collectively, these approaches enable more precise therapeutic deployment, bridging preclinical promise with clinical utility.
This Special Issue focuses on unraveling the mechanistic underpinnings and exploring the translational potential of natural products in chronic disease management. We welcome original research papers, reviews, mini-reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and short communications. Topics of interst include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Mechanistic studies investigating how natural products alleviate chronic diseases;
- Preclinical efficacy and safety evaluations of natural products in disease-specific animal models;
- Innovation in formulation and delivery technologies addressing pharmacokinetic limitations of natural products;
- Structure–activity relationship studies and rational molecular modification of natural products.
Dr. Zheng Li
Dr. Sokcheon Pak
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 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. Molecules 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.
Keywords
- natural products
- chronic diseases
- mechanism
- herbal compound
- drug delivery system
- molecular modification
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