Biomarkers in Lung Diseases: From Pathogenesis to Prediction of New Therapies

Dear Colleagues,

Several pathologies affect the lungs and airways, including inflammation, infection and fibrosis. Alteration of angiogenesis, coagulation, fibrogenesis and tissue repair, as well as epithelial damage, matrix remodelling and oxidative stress, are implicated in several lung diseases’ pathogenesis. Biomarkers are measurable indicators that can evaluate pathological biological processes, and they can be categorised by the following major mechanistic pathways: (1) alveolar epithelial cell damage; (2) aberrant fibrogenesis, fibroproliferation and matrix remodelling; (3) immune dysregulation; (4) vascular and endothelial damage; and (5) morphological biomarkers including chest CT scan and genetics. However, disease-specific biomarkers are lacking, and large longitudinal studies are needed before the translational use of the potential biomarkers in clinical practice. Despite the sustained research efforts during the last years focused on the identification of biomarkers applicable in clinical practice for the management of lung diseases, their utility in diagnosis, prognosis and therapy is still controversial. In the era of personalized medicine, it is important to be able to phenotype the disease and to define biomarkers able to elucidate the pathogenesis and to provide new target therapies.

Dr. Miriana d'Alessandro
Dr. Laura Bergantini
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. Journal of Respiration is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1000 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.

• biomarkers
• pulmonary fibrosis
• therapies
• interstitial lung diseases
• asthma