Natural Products as Targeted Modulators of the Immune System

For decades, compounds derived from natural products have demonstrated their effectiveness as therapeutic agents in different areas, such as metabolic disorder, cardiovascular diseases, inflammation, and neurological disorders.Natural products, like herbal medicines, fatty acids, and probiotics, also are implicated in the regulation of immune function.They control the immune system in a pleiotropic manner and participate in various processes of the adaptive/innate immunity.Therefore, natural products have great potential for targeted immune modulators, in the treatment of certain types of immunologic and inflammatory diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis, plaque psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.This special issue involves 12 original papers and 2 review papers selected by the editors which provides our readers a deeper understanding for using natural products as targeted modulators of the immune system.These papers are summarized as follows.Polyphenols are pharmacologically active natural products with well-known immunomodulatory activities.S. Ding et al. reviewed the immune-regulating properties of polyphenols from the perspectives of molecular immunity and epigenetic inheritance.They also raised several recommendations for the development of polyphenols as immune factors, including improving polyphenols' bioavailability in the host,