Dear Colleagues,

Autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases are very heterogenous in terms of frequency, clinical manifestations and pathogenic mechanisms. Epidemiologic data show that approximately 10% of the global population suffers from these disorders and the number of cases is increasing. More than 80 disease entities have been defined with a prevalence ranging from 1% to < 1/106. The peak incidence is usually between the ages of 40 and 50. These diseases are typically characterized by a chronic course with periods of exacerbation and remission, leading, in the most dramatic cases, to permanent disability or even death.

Autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases are currently believed to be the result of interactions between causative factors (e.g., environmental factors), genetic predisposition, autoantigens, disturbances in self-antigen tolerance and the mechanisms of apoptosis.

Additionally, a very dynamic development of novel therapies has been observed in recent years which significantly influenced patients’ overall survival and quality of life.

However, taken to the immense heterogeneity of etiopathogenic mechanisms, diversity in terms of  susceptibility to the disease, clinical phenotype and disease progression as well as the response to applied drugs, there is an extreme need to individualize health care and therapeutic approach along with further studies to elucidate mechanisms underlying autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases.

The aim of this Special Issue is to draw attention to current trends and milestones in the diagnosis, treatment, clinical course and progression assessment, as well as experimental studies on the etiopathogenesis, of these diseases.

We invite colleagues from all over the world to submit original and review papers as well as case reports.

Dr. Katarzyna Fischer
Prof. Dr. Zbigniew Żuber
Prof. Dr. Bogdan Batko
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. Medicina 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 1800 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.

• autoimmune diseases
• autoinflammatory diseases
• etiology
• pathogenesis
• diagnosis
• organ involvement
• cardiovascular risk
• imaging diagnostics
• therapeutic approaches