Homeostasis medicine: a new paradigm for disease treatment and prevention

A team of scientists from Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) and Capital Medical University (CMU) recently published a review entitled “Oral and systemic diseases under the framework of homeostatic medicine" in the KeAi journal Dental Research.

 "Homeostasis is a cornerstone concept in life sciences,” said Academician Wang Songlin from SUSTech/CMU, the originator of the concept of homeostatic medicine. “Homeostatic medicine focuses on the precise regulation of the body's multi-level dynamic balance, aiming to shift the medical paradigm from "treating diseases after they occur" to "preventing diseases before they arise", thereby serving public health and the national proactive health strategy.”

This review not only systematically constructs the core theory and research framework of homeostatic medicine but also provides an in-depth analysis of two key homeostatic regulatory mechanisms: the Sialin-mediated nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway and oral stem cell (OSC) homeostasis. Furthermore, it explores the dysregulation of these mechanisms in conditions such as dental caries, periodontitis, cancer, as well as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

Based on these insights, the authors of the review proposed homeostasis-restoring strategies involving exogenous nitrate interventions and targeted stem cell regulation. “Looking forward, through deep interdisciplinary integration of medicine, artificial intelligence, bioengineering, and materials science, homeostatic medicine will map out a new strategic blueprint for precision medicine and proactive health management,” says corresponding author Songlin Wang.

Contact the author:

Songlin Wang, Laboratory of Oral Homeostatic Medicine, School of Medicine and SUSTech Homeostatic Medicine Institute, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China. slwang@ccmu.edu.cn

Conflict of interest:

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

See the article:

Jian Zhou, Xiaoyu Li, Lei Hu, Songlin Wang, Oral and systematic diseases under the framework of homeostatic medicine, Dental Research, Volume 1, Issue 2, 2026, 100027. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dtrs.2026.100027