Natural Product Leads for Managing Metabolic Diseases
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026
Special Issue Editor
Interests: natural products chemistry; pharmacology; drug discovery; pharmacognosy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
According to the latest estimate of the World Health Organisation, diabetes affects over 830 million people in the world, and its prevalence over the last few decades increased with epidemic proportion. Apart from diabetes being the direct cause of death for over 1.6 million people per year, diabetes-associated complications such as blindness, kidney and cardiovascular disorders, stroke and lower limb amputation are also global challenges with significant burden to global societies. Both genetics and lifestyle play a role in diabetes; another critical risk factor, obesity, manifests a global prevalence of over 890 million with a further 2.5 billion people classed as overweight. Not surprisingly, metabolic syndrome that links both diabetes and cardiovascular diseases have become a common pathology that we consider with when designing our drug discovery strategies. Other forms of metabolic disorders include familial hypercholesterolemia and glycogen storage disease, which have lower prevalence but share similar pathological features. There is currently no cure for these diseases and the existing drugs have several drawbacks including high cost, poor efficacy and undesirable side effects. It is against this background that this Special Issue was proposed to highlight the pivotal role of natural products as potential leads for drug discovery in these fields. On this note, numerous natural products, both crude preparations (plant, fungal, microbial, algal, etc.) and isolated compounds, have shown pharmacological efficacy against metabolic diseases. This includes effects through unique biological targets (receptors, enzymes, ion channels, etc.) or multiple mechanisms ranging from general antioxidants and anti-inflammatory mechanisms to specific unique targets of metabolic diseases. Insights on therapies using natural products in the form of original research articles or reviews in any area of metabolic diseases, experimental designs and therapeutic approaches are welcome.
Dr. Solomon Habtemariam
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- diabetes
- metabolic syndrome
- metabolic diseases
- natural products
- mechanisms
- drug discovery
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