Inflammation is a series of complex biological processes to protect our body from harmful stimuli, including pathogens, damaged cells, and a variety of irritants. Although inflammation is the protective response, prolonged inflammation, known as chronic inflammation triggered and sustained by unknown and wrong reasons, leads to a progressive recruitment and activation of the inflammatory immune cells present at the inflammation sites and is characterized by “stuck” in the active sites and simultaneous destruction of the tissues, finally resulting in inflammatory/autoimmune diseases.

Inflammatory/autoimmune diseases have been intensively studied for a long time, and in a recent year, some inflammatory/autoimmune diseases which are very common in worldwide, including rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, have achieved an extraordinary progress in scientific understanding as well as drug development for a therapeutic purpose. However, considerable problems have been raised for these conventional treatments, such as drug-failure patient groups, side effects, and toxicity; therefore, more detailed studies and development of effective complementary and alternative medicines to resolve these problems need to be further explored. Moreover, a large subset of inflammatory/autoimmune diseases that are less common but more serious have not been focused and poorly explored. These are categorized as “rare inflammatory/autoimmune diseases,” meaning that they affect small number of patients. There are over 150 rare inflammatory/autoimmune diseases, many of which are incurable and terminal. Given these problems, not only basic studies but also development of novel therapeutics, especially complementary and alternative medicines that are more effective and safer than conventional treatments for the rare inflammatory/autoimmune diseases, is highly demanded.

In this special issue, we invite investigators to contribute original research articles and review articles that will help in understanding the basic mechanisms as well as the development of promising complementary and alternative strategies to diagnose and treat the rare inflammatory/autoimmune diseases.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• In vitro and in vivo complementary and alternative studies which could provide potential insight to prevent and treat rare inflammatory/autoimmune diseases
• Elucidation of basic molecular/cellular mechanisms of rare inflammatory/autoimmune diseases
• Identification and validation of the molecular targets or biomarkers of complementary and alternative medicines to prevent and treat rare inflammatory/autoimmune diseases
• Preclinical and translational/clinical studies of rare inflammatory/autoimmune diseases using complementary and alternative medicines
• New complementary and alternative medicines/technologies with potential applications in diagnosing and treating rare inflammatory/autoimmune diseases