Antimicrobial Resistance and Epidemiological Study of Clinically Relevant Pathogens

Dear Colleagues,

The escalating threat of bacterial resistance poses a significant challenge in contemporary healthcare, leading to critical clinical implications that profoundly impact treatment options. In recent years, infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) have become endemic in numerous healthcare facilities, resulting in hospital-acquired outbreaks reported globally. Several factors contribute to the varying prevalence of MDRO acquisition across departments, including individual patient risk factors such as underlying diseases, recent hospital admissions, the presence of vascular catheters, major surgeries, and recent antibiotic therapies.

Local factors further influence MDRO acquisition, such as excessive bed occupancy, inadequate patient isolation rooms, high patient-to-nurse ratios, and suboptimal compliance with standard precautions, including hand hygiene and environmental decontamination. There is a growing interest in understanding the role of the environment in patient MDRO acquisition, shedding light on bacterial adaptability, exemplified by the production of bacterial biofilm to facilitate adherence.

Advances in genotyping methods, particularly whole genome sequencing, offer exciting opportunities to trace the spread of microorganisms either between patients or from the environment to a patient. In this context, we invite contributions for our Special Issue, with a focus on, but not limited to, the following topics:

• The molecular characterization of multidrug-resistant bacteria;
• Correlation between antibiotic use and resistance patterns;
• The identification of risk factors for acquired multidrug resistance;
• The evaluation of local trends in multidrug-resistant bacteria;
• The investigation of novel methods for rapid resistance detection;
• The assessment of antimicrobial activity of new compounds;
• The relationship between the environment and resistant pathogens.

We encourage submissions of both original research and review articles. Your valuable contributions will significantly advance our understanding of bacterial multidrug resistance and antimicrobial activity.

Dr. Florin George Horhat
Dr. Adrian Man
Dr. Delia Muntean
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 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 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.

• antibacterial activity
• antimicrobial resistance
• infections
• multidrug-resistant pathogens
• virulence gene expression
• drug discovery
• epidemiological study