Phytochemicals in the Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease that primarily affects joints and bones. Disease‑modifying anti‑rheumatic drugs, biologics, and NSAIDs are mostly acclaimed for symptomatic relief, but these may have adverse outcomes. Extensive research has been conducted to find alternative and safe treatment options for RA. Phytochemicals in the Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis examines advanced knowledge about pathogenesis, diagnosis, and conventional treatment of RA and the application of phytochemicals in the management and prophylaxis of RA through modulation of molecular targets such as matrix metalloproteinases, nuclear factor kappa B, arachidonic acid, RANKL, and JAK/STAT.

This book contains research on the mechanisms of action, dosage, and molecular pathways affected by phytochemicals to treat RA and emphasizes the targeted‑drug delivery and novel dosage forms of phytochemicals to improve therapeutic efficacy and abate adverse effects. Additionally, it provides information on clinical studies and the use of photodynamic therapy for the management of RA. It will equip postgraduate students, health professionals, practitioners, pharmaceutical researchers, and biomedical scientists with valuable evidence about the anti‑arthritic foods, nutrients, and phytochemicals required for treating RA.

Dr. Ammara Saleem is the Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan. She has published more than 117 research papers in renowned journals with impact factor more than 440. She has 11 years of teaching and research experience. Her specific research area is inflammatory diseases, metabolic disorders, neurological and immunological disorders. She has published various research articles regarding medicinal plants for the treatment of inflammatory and immune disorders. She is the editorial board member in BioMed research international journal and Canadian respiratory journal. She has reviewed for different well reputed international scientific journals such as Molecules, Food, Frontier in Pharmacology etc.

Dr. Muhammad Furqan Akhtar is the Associate Professor, Riphah Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Riphah International University, Lahore Campus, Pakistan.

He has fourteen years of teaching and research experience. He is the author of more than 150 peer reviewed ISI-indexed articles with a cumulative impact factor of 500. He has supervised more than 49 post-graduate pharmacology students and is serving as academic/Associate editor of several prestigious international journals such as international journal of Endocrinology, Plos One. Evidence based complementary and alternative medicine, Frontier in Pharmacology, Heliyon. His research work focusses on pre-clinical exploration of neurological, endocrine, metabolic and immune diseases such as infertility, polycystic ovarian syndrome, obesity, drug induced infertility, diabetes and arthritis by drug-repurposing, nutraceuticals and, natural and synthetic drugs in animal models of disease and in-vitro methods. More specifically, he carries out research to investigate the role of potential drugs in ameliorating oxidative stress, genotoxicity and inflammation through a range of molecular and biochemical techniques so as to elucidate their mechanism of action. At larger scales, He is interested in the treatment of neurological and endocrine diseases, immune-stimulation as well as phytomedicines and ethnopharmacology. He also investigates the potential health hazardous effects, especially genotoxicity, endocrine disruption and neuro-degenerative diseases associated with the environmental pollutants such as microplastics and herbicides, so as to develop strategies to overcome these problems. Through these studies, he has investigated, compared and corroborated a range of nutraceuticals, herbal remedies and repurposed drugs for the management of various chronic ailments.

Dr. Alam Zeb is a Professor of Biochemistry. He currently works in The Bioactive Lab, Center for Desert Agriculture, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. He worked for 21 years at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Malakand, Pakistan. He is serving for 22 years at the same university teaching chemistry and biochemistry courses to undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students of biotechnology and biochemistry. Dr. Zeb has received his PhD with distinction from the Institute of Biochemistry, Technical University of Graz, Austria. Dr. Zeb published more than 109 research articles regarding the subject in various international peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Zeb had authored two books, the recent one is a textbook “Phenolic antioxidants in Foods: Chemistry, Biochemistry and Analysis” published by Springer Nature, Switzerland in 2021. The second textbook “Food Frying: Chemistry, Biochemistry and Safety” had been published by John Wiley and Sons, UK, in 2019. This book has been ranked 4th among the best top 10 books of all times in the field of chemistry and safety by Bookauthority.org. He had supervised several PhD and MPhil research students during his service at the University of Malakand. He is a member of the editorial board of several international journals including Frontiers in Nutrition, Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, and Current Functional Foods. Dr. Zeb is a productive scientist of Pakistan since 2009 and had received research productivity awards from Pakistan Council for Science and Technology, Pakistan, for several consecutive years, representing his contribution in the field of biochemistry.