Editorial: Purinergic signalling—a perspective from China (II)

We present to the readers volume II of our Special Issue (SI) on “Purinergic Signalling—a perspective from China”. Volume I of this SI was published in 2023; it was edited in the memory of the recently deceased Prof. Geoffrey Burnstock and was intended to celebrate the 50^th birthday of the research topic of purinergic signalling. Already this volume has demonstrated an exceedingly rapid development of purinergic research in China and the new volume further strengthens this impression.

It is now 53 years since Prof. Burnstock proposed in 1972 that purinergic signalling operates all over the human and animal body [1, 2]. Increasing evidence indicates that it plays many important roles in regulating physiological/pathological processes and in consequence, purinergic signalling represents a promising target for drug development [3–10].

In the present SI, 1 poem, 17 original research articles, 17 reviews and 8 Journal Club articles are included. The poem was specially written in memory of Prof. Burnstock and Prof. Francesco Di Virgilio, articulating the strong hope that all purine scientists will have a promising future in this field [11].

Prof. Burnstock was the first to put forward a unifying theory on the participation of purinergic signalling in acupuncture, an important discipline of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) [12–15]. His ideas on purinergic mechanisms regulating acupuncture- and moxibustion-induced analgesia presented a natural scientific basis for this therapeutic procedure [16–22], beyond the previously favored endorphin theory of acupuncture-induced analgesia [23–25]. In our SI, most articles concentrated on TCM subjects. Of the 9 experimental papers focusing on pain [26–34], 6 deal with acupuncture applied for inflammatory, neuropathic or visceral pain [26–31]. A further 3 papers also studied acupuncture, but concentrate on cardiac fibrosis [35], dry eye disease [36] and status epilepticus [37]. In addition, investigations on the effect of CD73 polymorphism in schizophrenia [38], the role of P2X7 receptors in acute depressive-like behavior [39] and hepatocellular carcinoma [40] are presented, as well as the participation of adenosine A_2A receptors in sleep deprivation [41]. Two further studies demonstrate that purinergic signalling is involved in the effect of the cholesterol lowering drug, berberine, on retinal photodamage [42] and in pain treated by Dieda Zhentong Gao patches prepared from a Chinese herb [32].

In the future, purinergic signalling in its completeness (purinergic molecules, their metabolites and the 19 purinergic receptors involved) may be promising explanations of the pathology and pathophysiology of TCM, including not only acupuncture, but also Chinese herbs, and other traditional therapeutic manipulations. Thereby, it will clarify how TCM works for the whole body and under which conditions it is superior to the so-called western medicine.

Eight articles were published with the Journal Club style, introduced a few years ago by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Charles Kennedy, to establish a forum for young scientists, who can report on exciting findings published on purinergic signalling and appearing in first class journals. In our SI, concise and insightful reviews are published on CD39, A_2A, P2X3, P2X7, P2Y₁, P2Y₂, P2Y₆, and P2Y₁₄ receptor-related discoveries [43–50]. In addition, a bibliometric review focusses on the development of P2X7 receptors from 2002 to 2023 [51], highlighting the work of Prof. di Virgilio, one of the founders of the P2X7 receptor field.

As for the remaining 16 review papers, one focusses on an interesting methodological issue. The authors summarize our present knowledge of fluorescent toolkits that can be used to visualize purinergic activities in living animals in health and disease; the need for continuous development of fluorescent indicators is emphasized in order to achieve an even more comprehensive, specific and quantitative detection of purinergic signaling events [52]. Among the 15 reviews that discuss different clinical conditions, 6 concentrate on cancer or cancer‑related pain [53–58] and 3 on neurological or mental disorders (Alzheimer’s disease, comorbid anxiety and depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) [59–61]. Review articles on eye diseases [62, 63], acupuncture-induced analgesia [21], obesity [64], cardiovascular diseases [65] and SiO₂‑induced pulmonary fibrosis [66] are also included in this special issue.

As the Guest Editors of this Special Issue II, we highly appreciate the work of all authors and reviewers who contributed with enthusiasm. We are also most grateful to the assistance provided by the Editorial Office of Purinergic Signalling. We strongly hope that these original articles and reviews will be useful to understand better some of the emerging issues of the field. We are very much looking forward to Special Issue III. If there happens to be sufficient interest for it, the number of amazing stories on purinergic signalling is likely to increase even more.

Author contributions

YT and PI wrote the main manuscript text. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Data availability

No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

Declarations

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by the Guest Editors.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.