Nucleotides and nucleosides are primitive biological molecules that were utilized early in evolution both as intracellular energy sources and as extracellular signalling molecules. ATP was first identified as a neurotransmitter and later as a co-transmitter with all the established neurotransmitters in both peripheral and central nervous systems. Four subtypes of P1 (adenosine) receptors, 7 subtypes of P2X ion channel receptors and 8 subtypes of P2Y G protein-coupled receptors have currently been identified. Since P2 receptors were first cloned in the early 1990’s, there is clear evidence for the widespread distribution of both P1 and P2 receptor subtypes in neuronal and non-neuronal cells, including glial, immune, bone, muscle, endothelial, epithelial and endocrine cells.

 

There is both short-term purinergic signalling in transmission and secretion and long-term (trophic) signalling in controlling cell proliferation, differentiation, motility and death in development and regeneration and there is increasing interest in the roles of purines and pyrimidines in pathophysiological conditions and their therapeutic potential in disease. At the molecular level, rapid progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms of nucleotide and nucleoside release, their extracellular metabolism, the intracellular signalling cascades elicited by receptor activation and the cross-talk with other essential signalling pathways.

 

The rapidly growing interest in purinergic signalling with its exceptionally wide spectrum of signalling functions in health and disease makes this journal devoted to purinergic signalling attractive to both basic scientists and clinicians.

Editor-in-Chief
Prof. G. Burnstock, Autonomic Neuroscience Institute, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, UK

Associate Editors

Molecular Biology of Purinergic Receptors
Michael Jarvis, AbbVie, North Chicago, IL, USA – P2X receptors (pain)

Medicinal Chemistry & Pharmacology
Ad IJzerman,Leiden University, The Netherlands – P1 receptors 
Kenneth A. Jacobson, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA – P1/P2Y receptors
Christa Müller, University of Bonn, Germany - 'P1, P2, agonists, antagonists, therapeutic potential
Ectoenzymes, Development & Stem Cells
Nicholas Dale, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
Jean Sévigny, Université Laval, Québec, Canada
Central Nervous System & Pain
Kazuhide Inoue, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan – P2X4 receptors/pain 
Charles Kennedy, University of Strathclyde, UK - Urinogenital system and more
Michael W. Salter, University of Toronto, OT, Canada - P2X4, P2X7, pain, microglia 
Beáta Sperlágh, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary – P2X7 receptors/pain/behaviour
Peripheral Nervous System & Physiological Roles
Timothy R Arnett, University College London, UK – Musculo-skeletal system
Vera Ralevic, University of Nottingham, UK – Cardiovascular system
Jean-Pierre Timmermans, Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium – Respiratory and gastrointestinal systems
Samuel J Fountain, University of East Anglia, UK– Cardiometabolic, peripheral nervous system, P2X receptor structure-function and pharmacology
Pathophysiology & Clinical
Wolfgang Junger, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
Simon Robson, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Immunology, Genetics & P2X7 Receptors 
Francesco Di Virgilio, University of Ferrara, Italy
Stem cells, Neuroscience, Cancer & Inflammation
Henning Ulrich, University of Sao Paolo, Brazil
Rodrigo A. Cunha, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Reviews
Nicholas Dale, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
Editorial Board
Maria Abbracchio, University of Milan, Italy; Jolanta Baranska, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland; Ana Maria Battastini, The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Michael Blackburn, University of Texas, Houston, TX, USA; Stefan Boehm, Medical University of Vienna, Austria; Pier Borea,University of Ferrara, Italy; Bruce Cronstein, NYU School of Medicine, NY, USA; Robson Coutinha-Silva, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;Jeff Dixon, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada; Jonathan A. Dranoff, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, AR, USA; Holger Eltzschig,University of Colorado, USA; David Erlinge, Lund University Hospital, Lund, Sweden; Michel Fausther, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA; Bilha Fischer, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel; Anthony Ford, USA; Christian Gachet, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France; Alison Gartland,University of Sheffield, UK; George Hasko, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA; Brian Gulbransen, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA; Gary Housley, University of Auckland, New Zealand; Pablo Huidobro-Toro, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile; Peter Illes, University ofLeipzig, Germany; Paul Insel, University of California San Diego, CA, USA; Yong-Chul Kim, Gwangju Institute of Science & Technology, Korea; Schuichi Koizumi, University of Yamanashi, Japan; Ivar von Kügelgen, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany; Joel Linden, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, CA, USA; Maria Teresa Miras-Portugal, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain; Pablo Pelegrín, Murcia Biomedical Research Institute, Murcia, Spain; Ana Sebastão,University of Lisbon, Portugal; Philippe Séguela, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Michail Sitkovsky, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Randy Sprague, Saint Louis University, MO, USA; Makoto Tsuda, Kyushu University, Japan; Alex Verkhratsky, University of Manchester, UK ; Cinzia Volonte, Fondazione Santa Lucia/CNR, Rome, Italy; Gary Weisman, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA; James S. Wiley, University of Melbourne, Australia; Gennady Yegutkin, Turku University, Finland; Yong Tang, Chengdu University of Traditional Medicine, China; Herbert Zimmermann, J. W. Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany