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More than 100 years ago, Dr Casimir Funk suggested the existence of a family of organic substances that are essential for life and thus introduced the concept of “vital amines” as essential nutrients with a specific action, requiring only minute amount with the power to cure a specific disease. Vitamins essential for human health are grouped according to whether they are soluble in water (hydrophilic) or in non-polar solvents (lipophilic). The hydrophilic vitamins are vitamin C and a series known as the vitamin B complex. Vitamin C is a reducing agent, whereas the vitamin B series are components of coenzymes. For example, riboflavin (vitamin B2) is a precursor of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) and pantothenate (vitamin B5) is a component of coenzyme A. Indeed, several coenzymes contain a vitamin as part of their structure; this relation is undoubtedly responsible for creating an “essential” role for the vitamin. Since vitamins are involved in a wide range of biological processes and cell function, these are considered as essential nutrients. The essential nature of vitamins as well as their unique biochemistry, molecular mechanisms and cellular function in health and disease are emphasized in this book which will serve as a highly useful resource for health professionals, nutritional scientists, medical students, fellows, residents, and graduate students.

Estimates based on sequencing data suggest that there are around 5.1 million species of fungi. Yet only a small number of fungi are harmful to animals, including humans. In addition to host-pathogen interactions, there are also mutualistic interactions between fungi and animals. Diseases caused by pathogenic fungi range from allergic reactions and superficial infections to invasive mycoses, and have a significant impact on human and animal life. Fungi are also cultivated by animals as a food source in highly developed relationships or are even involved in gut mutualism. This 3rd edition of Volume 6 of The Mycota highlights exemplary interactions between fungal pathogens and their host(s). The book is organized in three parts: Part 1 summarizes our current understanding of important pathogenic fungi such as Candida species, Malassezia yeasts, Aspergillus fumigatus and fungi of the order Mucorales. Part 2 addresses the characterization of the host response towards pathogenic fungi. It focuses on RNA as a mediator of host-pathogen interactions, the human gut mycobiome, the role of the innate immune system in fighting infections, pattern recognition receptors involved in fungal infections, and a summary of established infection models for studying host-fungal-pathogen interactions. Part 3 provides insights into the impact transcriptomics and proteomics technologies have on the research of human-pathogenic fungi. The up-to-date reviews by experts in the field provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of the various research topics in the field of human and animal relationships with fungi and will hopefully help researchers to find inspiration for their own research.

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers and the leading cause of deaths worldwide. The eighth volume of the “Interdisciplinary Cancer Research” series, entitled “Lung Cancer Pathophysiology: An Interdisciplinary Approach” publishes comprehensive reviews on the mechanisms of lung cancer. Fundamental elements of a lung cancer multidisciplinary team are discussed. The epithelial to mesenchymal transition in lung cancer, and the roles of tumor immune microenvironment, NK cells, RNA, micro-RNA, and long-non coding RNA in lung cancer are explained. A comprehensive genomic profiling in lung cancer in the era of immunotherapy approaches is also provided in this volume. This interdisciplinary series is of special value to researchers working on oncology. This is the main concept of Cancer Immunology Project (CIP), which is a part of Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN). This interdisciplinary book will be of special value to researchers, oncologists, and oncosurgeons who wish to extend their knowledge on lung cancer.