Precision targeting of inflammation: Understanding the cellular and molecular links between allergy, autoimmunity, cancer, aging and neurodegeneration

Controlled inflammation is essential for normal physiology and homeostasis, enabling tissue repair, host defense, and healthy aging. However, when inflammation becomes chronic, dysregulated, or mislocalized, it drives a wide spectrum of human diseases, including allergic and autoimmune disorders, cancer, and neurodegenerative conditions. Part of our understanding of chronic inflammation arises from complex interactions among immune, stromal, glial, and epithelial cells, shaped by cytokine networks, cellular metabolism, and tissue microenvironment. Deciphering these interactions is critical for developing precision strategies that modulate inflammation at the level of specific cells, tissues, or pathways while avoiding broad immunosuppression.Precision targeting of inflammation is also uncovering underappreciated links between allergic inflammation, cancer development, neuroinflammatory processes and neuroimmune regulation. Additionally, recent advances in single-cell and spatial omics, high-resolution profiling, and imaging technologies have revealed diverse cellular states, molecular pathways, and disease-specific endotypes. These tools highlight the remarkable heterogeneity and context-dependent nature of inflammatory responses, unveiling both shared and distinct mechanisms across allergic, autoimmune, neuroinflammatory, and cancer-associated conditions.This evolving knowledge is reshaping how inflammatory diseases are defined and enabling precision approaches that more accurately diagnose, stratify, and treat inflammation-mediated disorders.The goal of this Research Topic is to integrate discoveries from basic, translational, and clinical immunology to advance the next generation of precision therapies targeting inflammation in allergic conditions, autoimmunity, cancer, neuroinflammatory diseases and aging. Although biologics and small-molecule inhibitors have transformed treatment paradigms, patient responses remain variable, reflecting the molecular diversity of inflammatory mechanisms across individuals and diseases. Overcoming this variability requires detailed understanding of signaling pathways, immune–stromal communication, neuroimmune crosstalk, and tissue-specific regulation of inflammation.This Research Topic welcomes studies advancing inflammation research, from elucidating fundamental mechanisms to the discovery, characterization, and preclinical or clinical evaluation of novel therapeutic targets and strategies. Contributions exploring innovative anti-inflammatory agents, host-directed interventions, or other emerging therapeutic modalities are highly encouraged. Likewise, studies employing advanced analytical tools such as single-cell and spatial omics, integrative bioinformatics, or machine learning to define inflammatory endotypes, identify predictive biomarkers, and guide individualized therapies are strongly welcomed. By uniting mechanistic insights with therapeutic innovation, this Topic aims to accelerate precision approaches for more effective and durable control of inflammation-driven diseases.Submissions may include, but are not limited to, these themes:• Mechanistic discovery and pathways: Mechanisms of chronic inflammation, including cytokine signaling, metabolism, microenvironmental factors, and immune–stromal communication.• Precision subgrouping and endotyping: Defining disease subgroups using multi-omics, single-cell, or spatial technologies to characterize immune heterogeneity, identify pathogenic cell subsets, and refine disease classification.• Novel therapeutic targets and modalities: Discovery or evaluation of anti-inflammatory agents, host-directed therapies, or pathway-specific interventions.• Biomarker and predictive modeling: Identification and validation of diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment-response biomarkers using integrative bioinformatics or machine learning to guide precision medicine and link molecular signatures to clinical outcomes.• Translational models and clinical validation: Using experimental systems or clinical datasets to validate mechanistic findings and assess therapeutic potential.• Neuroimmune mechanisms and brain inflammation: Exploring CNS inflammatory pathways, including glial–immune interactions, blood–brain barrier regulation, and neuroinflammation in autoimmunity, infection, and cancer. Topic editors: Aida Paivandy, Zhiqiang Huang, DAVID POZO Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/74836/precision-targeting-of-inflammation-understanding-the-cellular-and-molecular-links-between-allergy-autoimmunity-cancer-aging-and-neurodegeneration