The Potential Roles of Natural Active Products in Neurological Disorders
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Bioactives and Nutraceuticals".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2024 | Viewed by 2004
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
According to global statistics, over 320 million people suffer from depressive disorders, and this number is still growing, partially as one of the post-COVID-19 pandemic effects. Depressive disorders are frequently accompanied by other diseases, including epilepsy. More than 23% and 13% of adult and pediatric patients with epilepsy, respectively, are concurrently diagnosed with depression. It has also been demonstrated that people suffering from depression have a significantly higher risk of developing epilepsy. Unfortunately, management of both depression and epilepsy is difficult, and comorbidity of these two diseases further reduces treatment effectiveness, which results in an elevated risk of depressive/epileptic episodes, or increased seizure severity. Generally, about 40% of depressive patients do not respond to antidepressant therapy, and ca. 60% of people who take antidepressant drugs do not achieve a complete remission. Furthermore, up to 50–85% of patients with depression experience relapse of the disease. Similarly, about 30% of patients with epilepsy are resistant to currently available drugs. Therapy with antidepressants and antiepileptics may induce bothersome side effects and it may interact with other substances, which may further negatively affect the effectiveness of treatment. Therefore, scientists are searching for novel strategies for the management of depressive disorders and epilepsy.
Natural products as substances characterized by diversity and structural complexity have gained recently particular attention. Natural active products are considered less toxic and better tolerated than synthetic drugs. More interest in natural products or compounds has been increasing, and various studies on their efficacy and molecular biological mechanisms have been conducted. Natural active products can serve as substitutes for existing drugs and have the result of further enhancing the therapeutic effect. They can be taken as adjuvants to conventional therapy as well.
Our Special Issue will focus on the therapeutic or inhibiting roles of natural active products in depression and epilepsy, we would like to bring together experts working in the field of these two medical conditions and invite them to work on molecular or cellular mechanisms, potential benefits related to the natural products in the treatment of depressive disorders and seizures. We encourage people to submit research articles or original reviews on all aspects of the molecular and cellular mechanisms modulated by natural products. Importantly, pure clinical studies will not be suitable for our special issue, but clinical research or pure model submissions together with biomolecular experiments or data are welcomed.
Dr. Anna D. Serefko
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- natural active products
- phytochemicals
- bioactive compounds
- Neurological Disorders
- depressive disorders
- Parkinson's disease
- depressive/epileptic episodes
- antidepressants and antiepileptics
- Alzheimer's disease
- brain stroke
- molecular mechanism
- drug delivery
- therapeutic potentials
- structure-activity relationships
- advanced therapies
