Journal of Inflammation Research

Wound Inflammation and Infection: Microbial Dysbiosis, Immune Crosstalk, and Emerging Therapeutics

The Journal of Inflammation Research is pleased to welcome you to submit your research to the Article Collection "Wound Inflammation and Infection: Microbial Dysbiosis, Immune Crosstalk, and Emerging Therapeutics".

Chronic wounds, burns, and diabetic foot ulcers represent a substantial global health burden, affecting millions of patients worldwide and imposing significant socioeconomic costs on healthcare systems. Dysregulated inflammation and recalcitrant infection constitute primary drivers of impaired healing, often leading to prolonged hospitalization, amputation, and increased mortality. The cutaneous microenvironment in these conditions is characterized by persistent pro-inflammatory signaling, aberrant immune cell infiltration, and complex microbial colonization that defies conventional therapeutic interventions. Despite advances in wound care, a substantial proportion of chronic lesions fail to progress through the normal phases of healing, underscoring the urgent need for mechanistic insights into the inflammatory and infectious processes that underpin these pathologies. Understanding the intricate crosstalk between microbial communities, host immune responses, and tissue repair mechanisms is essential for developing next-generation therapeutic strategies.

This topic is of paramount importance because the global prevalence of diabetes and an aging population continue to escalate, markedly increasing the incidence of chronic wounds and burn-related complications worldwide. Antimicrobial resistance further complicates infection management, rendering traditional antibiotic regimens increasingly ineffective and necessitating the urgent development of novel anti-infective agents and targeted delivery systems. Moreover, emerging evidence highlights that both local cutaneous and systemic gut microbiota profoundly influence wound healing trajectories, inflammatory resolution, and sepsis outcomes through complex immunomodulatory and metabolic pathways. Elucidating these host microbe interactions offers unprecedented opportunities to identify druggable targets, refine biomarker-guided risk stratification, and engineer smart biomaterials responsive to the wound microenvironment. Addressing this knowledge gap will advance fundamental understanding of inflammation biology and translate directly into improved clinical protocols, reduced healthcare expenditures, and enhanced quality of life for vulnerable patient populations.

This Collection aims to highlight cutting-edge research unraveling the complex interplay among cutaneous and systemic microbiota, host immune responses, and inflammatory cascades in wound pathophysiology. We welcome original research articles, reviews, and translational studies encompassing:

1. Skin and gut microbiome dysbiosis in wound healing and burn sepsis;
2. Novel anti-infective strategies, including antimicrobial natural products (e.g., Rhodomyrtone derivatives, gallidermin), antimicrobial peptides, and advanced biomaterial-based dressings;
3. Immunomodulatory mechanisms, inflammatory biomarkers, and metabolic regulation in diabetic foot ulcers and burn-related infections;
4. Multi-omics and machine-learning approaches to dissecting host–microbe interactions; and
5. Clinical innovations bridging molecular insights to improved patient outcomes.

Keywords: Wound inflammation; Microbiome dysbiosis; Burn sepsis; Antimicrobial resistance; Diabetic foot ulcer

Meet the Guest Advisors

Dr. Jiliang Li is an Associate Chief Physician / Associate Professor in the Department of Burns at Ningbo No. 2 Hospital; School of Medicine, Shaoxing University. Dr. Li received their Master's degree in Surgery at Soochow University in 2012 and their research focuses on burn surgery, wound repair, and artificial dermal vascularization, serving as the Principal investigator of four municipal/provincial research grants. Dr. Li is a Youth Committee Member for the Chinese Geriatrics Society Burn and Trauma Branch and a o Standing Committee Member, Zhejiang Provincial Association of Rehabilitation for Disabled Persons – Burn and Wound Repair Committee.

Dr. Jiaqi Lou is a PhD candidate at the Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine (IMIT), University of Tübingen, Germany, where his research centers on microbe-host interactions in wound repair and novel anti-infective strategies. He has published over 30 SCI papers as first or co-first author in leading journals, with a cumulative impact factor exceeding 120 and an h-index of 16. He serves as a youth editorial board member for several international and Chinese journals, including the Chinese Journal of Burns and Wound Repair, and has completed more than 100 peer reviews for SCI journals. With prior clinical training in burn surgery and extensive expertise in multi-omics and machine-learning approaches, he bridges clinical practice and translational research to advance inflammation science. His current work focuses on antimicrobial natural products, skin microbiota metabolites, and metabolic regulation in diabetic foot ulcers and burn-related infections.