oa Editorial [ Hot Topic:Recent Advances in Gastrointestinal Pharmacology: From Basic Science to Clinical Practice (Executive Editors: Gyula Mozsik and Koji Takeuchi)]

Many people of the total inhabitans suffers from the primary gastrointestinal (GI) damage with unknown etiology and secondary GI damage of which clinical feature appears in association with the presence of different physical, chemical, viral or bacterial and other noxious agents, including big numbers of drugs. In our days, a great attention has been paid to patients infected with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), and also to an extremely big number of patients who receive nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for treatment of thrombophylia, arteriosclerosis, stroke, myocardial heart attack or degenerative joint diseases. H. pylori produces dominantly duodenal ulcer, atrophic gastritis, dysplasia and malignancy in the stomach, meanwhile NSAIDs induce GI side effects (bleeding, ulceration, inhibition of bicarbonate secretion, changes in motility, etc). Especially, the medical indication of NSAIDs is a relatively low when considered from evidence based medicine (EBM), because their application in patients with above mentioned diseases is absolutely indicated, while this is contraindicated in patients with GI diseases. Consequently, the research is necessary in the basic and clinical fields. We have decided to publish a special issue in Current Pharmaceutical Design under the title of “Recent Advances in Gastrointestinal Pharmacology: From Basic Science to Clinical Practice”. This issue provides a collection of articles based on the presentations at a symposiums during 13th International Conference on GI Research at Split, Croatia in 2009. This issue contains 8 articles, each dealing with the topic on ”peptides as potential drugs for cancer therapy“, ”role of Hsp 70 in various GI diseases”, “roles of orexigenic peptides in gastric cytoprotection and ulcer healing”, “capsaicin; from plant cultivation to drug production”, “gastric cytoprotection by pentadecapeptide BPC157”, “complexity of gastric acid secretion revealed by targeted gene disruption”, “soluble dietary fiber against NSAID-induced small intestinal damage” and “prostaglandin EP receptor subtypes in gastroduodenal HCO3 - secretion”. We wish to thank all of the authors for their scholarly contributions to this issue. It is satisfying to see their efforts in this issue that, it is hoped, will provide those who read it with a better appreciation and greater insight into the exciting challenges we still face in the treatment of GI diseases. Finally, we hope that this special issue will stimulate both the experimental and clinical researches in future and contribute to the development of novel therapeutic strategies for GI diseases.