Herbal Medicines/Natural Products for Treatment of Endocrine Aging Disorders

Call for Papers

With the ever growing size of the elderly population, increasingly more people are suffering from endocrine aging disorders (EADs) including menopause, adrenopause, and somatopause. Though altered secretory functions of the endocrine axis are thought to be associated with the aging process and lead to EADs, the whole picture of the progression of endocrine aging is not available to us. In conventional Western medicine, hormone replacement therapy is considered as an efficient treatment but confronted with safety concerns.

However, the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has opened up a new window for the treatment of EADs. The endocrine system is complicated and exerts widespread effects on the whole body through its delicate regulation of hormonal secretions. The use of CAM, especially traditional Chinese medicine, as alternative approaches may holistically modulate the endogenous hormonal balance. Evidence-based research on the use of CAM in this area will shed light on the underlying mechanisms of actions and increase the credence of such therapeutic approaches. Results from the following aspects including screening of bioactive principles, study of drug delivery, side effects, clinical trials, and practice will enrich the current knowledge of the efficacy of CAM to treat EADs.

Therefore, investigators are cordially invited to submit review articles/original research data which assess the roles of medicinal plants/natural products in treating EADs. We are particularly interested in articles that involve the modulation of the endocrine axis by CAM. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Mechanistic study of herbal medicines/natural products for treatment, of EADs especially translational and clinical studies
• Elucidation of function, drug interaction, and side effects of herbal medicines/natural products in EADs using systematic approaches such as transcriptomics, proteomics, or metabolomics approaches
• Isolation, identification, and characterization of potential agents with clinical implications for treating EADs
• Adjuvant use of herbal medicines/natural products with either conventional medicines or western medicine for ameliorating EADs

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ecam/enda/ according to the following timetable:

Lead Guest Editor

• Stephen Cho Wing Sze, School of Chinese Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Guest Editors

• Chun Tao Che, Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
• Tzi Bun Ng, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
• Yao Tong, School of Chinese Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong