Cytotoxicity, Antioxidant and Anticancer Activity of Natural Products

Dear Colleagues,

The main reason for the high economic and social burden of cancer is the lack of effective drug agents and therapies. Therefore, the efforts of a large part of the scientific community are directed at identifying new anticancer compounds from natural sources (plants, algae or other organisms) as well as developing new formulations in order to increase the healing potential and minimize the side effects of currently used therapeutic agents. Thus, the search for new biologically active compounds is important for the discovery of new drugs relative to the treatment of cancer.

Evaluation of the anticancer activity is performing by detection of specific cytotoxicity of the test agent, affecting fundamental cellular functions of cancer cells causing their death. Changes in metabolic processes (eg, mitochondrial activity) and the level of ATP or free radicals are early indicators of cell damage. Disruption of the plasma membrane integrity increases the concentration of enzymes in the extracellular environment, which together with the DNA fragmentation are key parameters for assessing the cell damage. Therefore, anticancer activity is assessed on the basis of specific cytotoxicity observed by examining the basic parameters of cell damage.

This Special Issue aims to publish original research studies related to the isolation and characterization of natural products with anticancer activity as well as their molecular mechanisms of action or effects on a particular metabolic or signalling pathway. Authors are invited to submit their high-quality articles, reviews or short communications concerning this topic. Multidisciplinary studies involving in vitro and/or in vivo experiments that address specific delivery of anticancer drugs by using different novel technologies based on natural products are also welcome.

Importantly, the exact active ingredient of plant extract must be reported in the submitted research manuscript, since papers describing effects of mixed extraction from plants will not be accepted.

Prof. Dr. Balik Dzhambazov
Guest Editor

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. 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.