The Medicinal Chemistry of Antibiotics
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2020) | Viewed by 4245
Special Issue Editor
Interests: anti-cancer drugs; antibiotics; antibacterial agents; bacterial infections; drug-resistant pathogens; medicinal chemistry; natural products; rational drug design; repurposing existing drugs and drug targets
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Infectious diseases accounted for high morbidity and mortality in the 19th century. Since the introduction of antibiotics and vaccines, millions of lives have been saved and life expectancy has rapidly increased. As a result, in industrial countries, diseases that are not transmissible (e.g., cardiovascular disease, cancer, and stroke) have been highlighted as the leading causes of death. The majority of antibacterial agents being applied in current clinical practices in infections were introduced in the period between the 1950s and 1980s. Lack of established treatment guidelines for drug-resistant bacterial infections and misuse of drugs that cause mutations in bacterial genomes have led to an increase in antibiotic resistance. Some bacteria have already acquired extensive drug (or pandrug) resistance. Although a different aspect, drug-resistant spore-forming Bacillus spp. are readily engineered to use as biological weapons. Therefore, multidrug-resistant bacteria are currently considered as an emergent global disease and a major public health problem, as well as a threat to world security (bioterrorism).
Despite the increase in antimicrobial resistance, the development of new antimicrobial agents is declining due in large part to the fact that research and development (R&D) in large pharmaceutical industries have leaned towards drug development for the leading chronic diseases in the last few decades. The continuous development of new antibacterial agents is essential to reduce the global threat of antibiotic resistance. Over the past 20 years, national governments (e.g., NIH/NIAID in the U.S.) and nonprofit organizations have assumed a critical role in supporting and stimulating private and public sectors to offer opportunities in the antibacterial drug market. Under the current research environment, antibacterial drug discovery has advanced to innovative translational sciences including target-oriented drug discovery, new organic syntheses, drug delivery approaches, and analytical and assay methods.
The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight the recent advances in antibacterial drug discovery. This Special Issue may include original research articles and reviews on drug targets, medicinal chemistry (structure–activity relationships), new chemical entities, natural products, novel assays, phage therapy, vaccines, computational chemistry, new formulations, drug delivery, pharmacokinetic and dynamic aspects, and new strategies to use approved drugs.
Prof. Dr. Michio Kurosu
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- antibacterial agents
- medicinal chemistry
- antibacterial drug discovery
- antibacterial pharmacology
- rational drug design of antibacterial agents
- antibacterial drug delivery
