Anti-inflammatory and Antithrombotic Natural Bioactives for Drug Development: Current Status and Future Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), inflammation, thrombosis and their associated chronic disorders, including but not limited to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), cancer, renal and neurodegenerative disorders, allergy and autoimmune diseases, persistent infections and associated manifestations, are the main causes of mortality in developed and developing countries and, thus, a global burden. Even though the current approaches for prevention and therapy have high efficacy, they usually have high costs, undesirable side effects and environmental issues. Hence, there is an increasing necessity for and interest in developing novel pharmaceutical products containing natural bioactives, with fewer side effects and higher efficacy, especially those from sustainable natural sources.

The objective of this Special Issue is to promote research in this field and outline the current status and future perspectives regarding the valorisation of anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic bioactives from sustainable natural sources, such as the rich-in-natural-bioactive bio-cultures of several microorganisms, easily and environmentally friendly sustainable pharmaceutical plant cultures, marine aquacultures and several by-products of the agri-food sector in a circular economy design, as well as to highlight their importance as ingredients for the design and production of high-value bio-functional pharmaceutical products with promising health promoting effects against the aforementioned inflammation-related chronic disorders.

Emphasis will be placed on works outlining state-of-the-art methods of isolation and molecular analysis applied to several natural sources for obtaining/extracting and fractionating such natural micro-/macro- bioactives from the prime extracts, mixtures, filtrates, isolates, etc., derived from sustainable natural sources, as well as to OMICS-based full chemical characterization and structural elucidation, in tandem with designed and tailored bioassays and in vitro/ex vivo/in vivo approaches, in order to evaluate the structure–activity relationship and potential synergism(s) against specific bio-molecular pathways and cell/tissue/organ biological responses, which are of paramount importance for assessing the structure–activity relationship and causality and provide molecular evidence for the utilization of the most optimum bio-functional natural bioactives or their mixtures for producing targeted pharmaceutical products based on both their pharmacokinetics and current legislation.

Studies containing such targeted pharmaceutical experiments accompanied with appropriately designed approaches for evaluating the clinical safety and efficacy of products containing such natural anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic bioactives, through tandem animal studies and clinical trials, are highly welcomed.

Special attention will be paid to works on such sustainable natural bioactives with improved safety, efficacy, and bioavailability–biodigestibility and pharmacokinetics–pharmacodynamics relationships.

Finally, relative comprehensive or systematic reviews and meta-analysis articles are also welcomed for inclusion in this Special Issue.

Dr. Alexandros Tsoupras
Guest Editor

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• chronic disorders
• bioactives
• natural sources
• sustainable sources
• pharmaceuticals
• drug discovery
• structure–activity relationship
• synergism
• health promotion
• bio-functional
• drugs
• inflammation
• thrombosis
• platelets
• cancer
• CVD
• neurodegenerative
• neuroprotective
• anti-inflammatory
• cardio-protective
• anti-cancer
• anti-tumor
• anti-thrombotic
• antiplatelet
• anticoagulant