Neuroprotection Mediated by Natural Products and Their Chemical Derivatives

Dear Colleagues,

The protection of nerve cells from acute and chronic damage continues to be an area of significant research efforts, attracting scientists from a diverse range of fields, including neuroscience, pharmacology, and medicinal chemistry among several others. With the ultimate goal to generate intervention strategies that slow or even reverse structural and functional degeneration of neurons, neuroprotection as a research field, and a potential clinical implementation, has profound relevance to numerous medical fields, such as neurology, ophthalmology, and endocrinology, where effective therapies are lacking and urgently needed.

Neuroprotection research has been directly or indirectly influenced and motivated by research on natural products due to a large body of literature indicating medical uses of natural products as alternative, complementary, or novel treatment options for diseases involving the structural and functional degeneration or even the loss of nerve cells. These research efforts are characteristic of how clinical practice, basic, and translational research inform each other, and how such interactions can result in novel therapeutic strategies of high clinical relevance. Recent methodological advances in synthetic and medicinal chemistry, mass spectrometry, proteomics, drug target discovery, and drug development have generated renewed interest in neuroprotection, mediated by natural products and their chemical derivatives.

Therefore, this Topical Collection invites manuscript submissions, namely research and review papers, targeting the gamut of methodological and scientific innovation in this field. Of specific interest to this Topical Collection are papers focused on the discovery and mechanistic characterization of novel drug targets, signaling pathways, and mechanisms of action of natural products and their derivatives as they are relevant for neuroprotection. These contributions can be general and broad in their applicability to a range of conditions affecting neurons, or highly focused on specific research models related to nerve cell damage, impairment or death or directly on clinical studies of diseases, disorders, or trauma affecting the nervous system.

Prof. Dr. Lucian Hritcu
Collection Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts for the topical collection can 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. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on this website. The topical collection considers regular research articles, short communications and review articles. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page.

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).