Inflammation is the first biological response of the immune system against infection or irritation. However, accumulating epidemiological and clinical study indicates that zealous acute inflammation or chronic inflammatory reaction is a significant risk factor to develop various human diseases. Controlling or modulating inflammation is therefore important to prevent or ameliorate certain diseases. Various natural products derived from medical herbs have been well characterized to regulate inflammatory diseases, such as astragalus polysaccharides, cannabinoids, berberine, curcumin, triptolide, and some flavonoids. Recent advances in chemistry and biology have introduced new technologies to synthesize or purify components from natural products and also improved the studies of underlying mechanisms of action. Investigations of anti-inflammatory natural products definitely will lead to the development of novel therapeutic agents to provide better care to patients. We are interested in articles that explore the effects and molecular mechanisms of natural products or their derivatives with clear molecular structure (crude extracts are not qualified) in inflammatory diseases.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Neutrophil recruitment, infiltration, and activation and formation of extracellular traps (NETs)
• Monocyte and macrophage activation and related signaling pathways, such as MAPKs, NK-κB, and COX-2
• Balance between the effector T cell and regulator T cell differentiation, interleukin-17-producing CD4 T cells (Th17), and IL-17-producing innate immune cells such as γδ T cells and neutrophils
• Molecular events involved in CD8 T cell activation and exhaustion in chronic viral persistence, such as PD-1/PD-L1 expression and downstream signaling pathway
• TCR-associated CD-3 ζ and ZAP70 and downstream PI3K/mTOR pathway
• Expression of cytokine and other effector molecules including IFN-γ and CD107a/b