Peptide-Based Drugs in the Era of Antimicrobial Resistance
A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2026) | Viewed by 649
Special Issue Editors
Interests: antimicrobial peptides; pore-forming proteins; biotoxins; protein engineering; transcriptomics; proteomics; bioassays; bionanotechnology
Interests: peptides; biodiversity; proteins; mass spectrometry; proteomics; peptide synthesis; protein purification; chromatography; protein mass spectrometry; protein identification; antimicrobial peptides
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the context of rising resistance to conventional antibiotics, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have emerged as therapeutic alternatives. Their broad-spectrum activity (targeting bacteria, fungi, viruses, and certain parasites), combined with their ability to modulate immune responses and their rapid, multifactorial mechanisms of action, positions them as promising tools in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Moreover, their structural versatility and amenability to optimization through molecular engineering or rational design make them strong candidates for the development of next-generation therapeutics.
Despite their potential, several technical and biological challenges remain to be solved prior to clinical use. Key obstacles include their limited stability against proteolytic degradation, potential cytotoxicity toward human cells, and the need for effective delivery systems to ensure targeted and sustained activity in biological environments.
This Special Issue aims to gather recent research on antimicrobial peptides, covering their discovery, characterization, optimization, and therapeutic application. We welcome studies on the validation of novel peptides, structure–function analyses, biological evaluation, delivery platforms, and multidisciplinary approaches that integrate biotechnology, bioinformatics, medicinal chemistry, and nanotechnology in the context of antimicrobial resistance.
Dr. Santos Ramírez Carreto
Prof. Dr. Juana María Jiménez-Vargas
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- antimicrobial resistance
- antimicrobial activity
- novel antimicrobial peptides
- structure–activity relationship
- bionanotechnology
- improvement of biological stability
- rational drug design
- optimization of drug delivery systems
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