Special Issue "Anti-Infective Agents"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Paul Cos
Laboratory of Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH) Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty of Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences Antwerp University, campus groenenborger, building V, office 5.23 Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium
Website: www.ua.ac.be/paul.cos
E-Mail:
Interests: anti-infective agents; biofilm; bacterial virulence; oxidative stress; antibacterial; antifungal; antiparasitic and antiviral

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Mark Hamann
Department of Pharmacognosy and The National Center for the Development of Natural Products, University of Mississippi, USA
Website: http://www.pharmacy.olemiss.edu/pharmacognosy/Hamann/Hamannres.html
E-Mail:
Interests: natural products; antiinfectives; anticancer agents; NMR spectroscopy; marine ecology; synthesis of natural products; biosynthesis

Dear Colleagues,

Despite the tremendous progress in human medicine, infectious diseases represent one of the greatest challenges to mankind in the 21^st century. According to WHO, infectious diseases account for nearly a third of global deaths. AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and respiratory infections were among the top eight leading causes of death in 2004. The burden of infectious diseases falls particularly on the less developed countries due to the relative unavailability of medicines and the emergence of widespread drug resistance. In developing countries, a high infectious disease burden commonly co-exists with rapid emergence and spread of microbial resistance. The growing threat of emerging diseases such as SARS and influenza A (H1N1) has served as a wake-up call to public health services, pharmaceutical industry and academia.
Because the evolution of drug resistance is likely to compromise every drug in time, research on new anti-infective agents must be continued and all possible strategies should be explored. Besides small molecules from medicinal chemistry, natural products are still major sources of innovative therapeutic agents for various conditions, including infectious diseases.
This special issue welcomes research articles and comprehensive reviews addressing the discovery and/or development of anti-infective agents.

Prof. Dr. Paul Cos
Guest Editor

Prof. Dr. Mark Hamann
Guest Editor

Related Special Issues in other Journals

Anti-Infective Agents in Molecules

Submission

All manuscripts should be submitted to pharmaceuticals@mdpi.org with a copy to the Guest Editor. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pharmaceuticals is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.

• anti-infectives
• biofilm
• bacterial virulence
• oxidative stress
• antibacterial
• antifungal
• antiparasitic
• antiviral
• screening
• small molecules
• natural products

Manuscript ID: Pharmaceuticals-antiinfect-20091113-Guinea-es
Type of Paper: Review
Title: Aspergillus and Antifungal Resistance: The Problem is in the Air
Author: Jesús Guinea ^1,2,3
Affiliations: ¹ Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Department, Hospital General Universitario “Gregorio Marañón”, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
² CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBER RES CD06/06/0058), Palma de Mallorca, Spain
³ Microbiology Department, School of Medicine, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; E-Mail: jguineaortega@yahoo.es
Abstract: Aspergillus is a ubiquitous mould and their spores are frequently found in the air. Aspergillus is able to cause invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in immunosuppressed patients after the inhalation of spores. The azoles have a preponderant role in the prevention (posaconazole) or treatment (voriconazole) of invasive aspergillosis. Although these agents have shown to be very active against clinical and environmental isolates of Aspergillus, recent reports have shown an increase in the number of isolates harbouring resistance to multiple azoles. The present article reviews the state-of-the-art of the antifungal susceptibility of Aspergillus isolates and the mechanisms of antifungal resistance to azoles that have been described.

Manuscript ID: Pharmaceuticals-antiinfect-20091118-us-Knight
Title: Cobalt(III) Complexes as Antibacterial and Antiviral Agents
Authors: Eddie. L. Chang ¹, Christa Simmers ² and D. Andrew Knight ²
Affiliation: ¹ Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering,
Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20375, USA; E-Mail: eddie.chang@nrl.navy.mil
² Chemistry Department, Florida Institute of Technology, 150 West University Boulevard, Melbourne, FL 32901, USA; E-Mail: aknight@fit.edu
Abstract: Metal ion complexes are playing an increasing role in the development of antimicrobials. We review here the antimicrobial properties of cobalt coordination complexes in oxidation state 3+. In order to rationalize the many different categories of complexes, we classify antibacterial and antiviral activities according to the ligand donor set and the mode of activity where it relates to function. In addition to reviewing the cobalt complexes containing polydentate donor ligands, we also focus on the antimicrobial activity of the homoleptic [Co(NH₃)₆]³⁺ ion.