As we assume the editorship of Conditioning Medicine, we want to express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Miguel Perez-Pinzon who guided the inaugural publication of the journal, and its early roots over the last two years. Starting a journal is no easy task especially with the clamor among scientists to publish only in established and reputable journals. Dr. Perez-Pinzon has assembled an editorial team of multidisciplinary experts comprised of basic scientists, translational researchers, and clinicians who have a vested interest in advancing the field of Conditioning Medicine. As the new editors, we will maintain such expertise of the editorial team. On behalf of the entire editorial team, we acknowledge and appreciate Dr. Perez-Pinzon’s unparalleled commitment and contribution to our Conditioning Medicine journal.     

In taking the leadership of the journal as Co-Editors, our goal is to build upon the vision of increasing the multidisciplinary and rapidly evolving contemporary science that impact on Conditioning Medicine. While the first two years recognized significant brain and heart research contributions to the conditioning medicine field, we now wish to welcome contributions in other organs, such as the lung, liver, and gut, where “conditioning” has evolved as an approach to probe disease pathology and treatment. To this end, we are dedicating a future special issue to microbiome-themed research. Along the line of harnessing research on timely and pressing health problems, we are cognizant of the acute and chronic consequences of COVID-19, in that while primarily a respiratory disease, compelling evidence suggests its evolution into a multi-organ disease characterized by cerebrovascular and cardiovascular involvement, among other organ pathology and symptoms. That the overarching pathology implicates aberrant immune and inflammatory responses suggests a key role of immunomodulation-associated signaling pathways. Interestingly, a careful examination of the 1918 Spanish flu, which uncannily resembles COVID-19 as a respiratory virus, reveals crosstalk between immunomodulation and conditioning medicine. First, surviving Spanish flu-infected people developed immunity against the virus, thus these individuals were “conditioned” to become immune to the second wave of the Spanish flu, indicating the potential of passive immunity-based treatment against the virus. Indeed, clinical trials are underway testing the efficacy of convalescent plasma harvested from recovered COVID-19 patients based on the notion that these individuals, just like those who were infected but survived the Spanish flu, have mounted a robust immune antibody response that can dampen the harmful proteins found on COVID-19. Second, the Spanish flu, again similar to COVID-19, manifested initially as an acute respiratory disease but evolved into a slow-progressive disease with many consequential co-morbidities. Both these lessons from the Spanish flu point to the critical role of conditioning medicine for COVID-19 and its co-morbid diseases, fortifying our role to highlight this topic as another special issue later this year in our journal.

Together with the esteemed editorial board, we will nurture the core mission of the journal, which is to disseminate high quality studies on discovery- and mechanism-based research in the field of Conditioning Medicine as it relates to its multiple modalities of treatment, including but not limited to pre- and post-conditioning, as well as remote and pharmacological conditioning. The journal targets multiple organs and diseases where conditioning treatments may be therapeutic. We will remain committed to the journal’s current production schedule of six issues per year with rigorous but fair reviews of primary original research articles and topical reviews. We encourage potential authors to consider theme-focused special issues, such as our proposed themes on microbiome and COVID-19. We will also solicit timely commentaries to feature recent breakthroughs, as well as thought-provoking research relevant to Conditioning Medicine. We encourage opinion pieces on emerging subjects describing novel discoveries in the field and its relevant faculties (e.g., cardiology, neurology, neurosurgery, pharmacology, physical therapy, and radiology), eventually creating multi- and cross-disciplinary viewpoints (e.g., imaging, bioinformatics, nanoscience, stem cells, and exercise) in the journal.    

We appreciate the time and effort of the entire editorial team and publication staff as we move towards creating an impactful contribution to the scientific community and the clinical arena. Together, we are resolute in making Conditioning Medicine a premier journal of choice for scientists and clinicians. On behalf of our colleagues and hardworking editorial staff, we hope that you will consider submitting your outstanding research to Conditioning Medicine.