Topic Editor Dr. Balakumar Chandrasekaran holds patents relating to N-substituted isatin hydrazones as antimycobacterial and antimicrobial agents, and Pharmaceutical Compounds. Topic Editor Dr. Munir Al-Zeer holds a patent relating to Method for the Preparation of an Influenza Virus. All other Topic Editors declare no competing interests.

This book, written by a leading panel of experts in the field of neurosciences, provides a comprehensive overview of the pathology of neurodegenerative diseases as well as the preventive measures. Prevention is important due to the lack of early diagnostic markers and the limitations/ problems of treating neurodegenerative diseases

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic there have been remarkable research and innovation efforts to fight the SARS-COV-2 virus and the related disease. This patent landscape report provides early observations on the patenting activity which took place in the field of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, and compares results with clinical trial data for related candidate vaccines and drugs.

A peptidomimetic is a small protein-like chain designed to mimic a peptide with adjusted molecular properties such as enhanced stability or biological activity. It is a very powerful approach for the generation of small-molecule-based drugs as enzyme inhibitors or receptor ligands. Peptidomimetics in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry outlines the concepts and synthetic strategies underlying the building of bioactive compounds of a peptidomimetic nature. Topics covered include the chemistry of unnatural amino acids, peptide- and scaffold-based peptidomimetics, amino acid-side chain isosteres, backbone isosteres, dipeptide isosteres, beta-turn peptidomimetics, proline-mimetics as turn inducers, cyclic scaffolds, amino acid surrogates, and scaffolds for combinatorial chemistry of peptidomimetics. Case studies in the hit-to-lead process, such as the development of integrin ligands and thrombin inhibitors, illustrate the successful application of peptidomimetics in drug discovery.

Innate immunity is one the most evolutionally conserved systems, designed to protect the organism from viruses and bacterial infections, stress and many other types of attacks from the outside world. During the past decade, the capacity of molecular biology and information technology to produce and analyse data have grown exponentially, rapidly reforming many aspects of immunology research in the post-genomics era. As a result, scientific understanding of signalling networks governing the innate immunity response in human tissues and other organisms has evolved beyond recognition, compared to even just a decade ago. Many strategies have been designed over the years to identify novel proteins, which have a crucial role in innate immunity responses by regulating particular signalling pathways. These projects had many advantages, including the definition of novel drug targets, as exemplified by the recent success of anti-TNF therapy, as well as leading to a better, system-wide understanding of the molecular control of innate immunity. In the past few years, a new concept, Immunomics, has been adopted to define an emerging, multidisciplinary field of research (Schonbach, 2003). Although rapid progress has been made to identify the proteins playing pivotal roles in the innate immunity–related signalling pathways (for example, TIR signalling pathways), the catalogue of proteins with a key regulatory function identified and studied is far from completed. Novel proteins need to be char- terised to gain a more comprehensive picture of how signalling networks are regulated.

Massive experimental, computational, and clinical studies have been performed worldwide, and are still ongoing, to understand and characterize Covid-19 molecular basis and transmission mechanisms, to develop diagnostics and vaccines, and to search for small chemical drug candidates and therapeutic proteins and peptides. Impressive results have been obtained for transmission control and vaccines so far, but what is the status of the other therapeutic options? The crisis has exposed different types of weaknesses in biomedical research in many countries. What can we learn from this crisis in the field of drug discovery and development so as to emerge stronger? The Covid-19 crisis has revealed the strengths of modern drug discovery and vaccine development but also exposed different types of weaknesses that would need to be addressed to be better prepared for a possible next global health crisis. These challenges/weaknesses/obstacles are of very different nature and as such hard to tackle. For instance, in addition to the inherent challenging nature of the scientific discovery, some scientists have mentioned insufficient local/national coordination and observed a fragmented drug discovery research, others have underlined a lack of coordination between the academic system and the private sector, an inadequate international global coordination and cooperation, others highlighted insufficient infrastructures, inappropriate financial supports, limited discussions between the scientific community performing the research and the public health authorities, decision makers and the society, while some remarked insufficient education/training about drug discovery and development leading to confusion… The crisis also raised important scientific questions about the technologies that would need to be used during an emergency situation, combined, integrated, or developed so as to accelerate the identification of small molecule drug candidates and of therapeutic peptides/proteins.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been implicated in almost every human disease phenotype, without much, if any, therapeutic consequence foremost exemplified by the failure of the so-called anti-oxidants. This book is a game changer for the field and many clinical areas such as cardiology and neurology. The term ‘oxidative stress’ is abandoned and replaced with a systems medicine and network pharmacology-based mechanistic approach to disease. The ROS-related drugs discussed here target either ROS- forming or ROS -modifying enzymes for which there is strong clinical evidence. In addition, ROS targets are included as they jointly participate in causal mechanisms of disease. This approach is transforming the ROS field and represents a breakthrough in redox medicine indicating a path to patient benefit. In the coming years more targets and drugs may be discovered, but the approach will remain the same and this book will thus become, and for many years remain, the leading reference for ROSopathies and their treatment by network pharmacology. Chapter "Soluble Guanylate Cyclase Stimulators and Activators" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.