Rise of Antibiotic Resistance: Mechanisms Involved and Solutions to Tackle It

Dear Colleagues,

Antibiotics have revolutionized modern medicine and established unprecedented patterns in public and animal health. However, their misuse has exposed bacteria to selective pressure, leading to the development of critical and therapeutically untreatable bacterial resistance. Our current arsenal of effective antibiotics, accompanied by the lack of alternatives, is prompting the beginning of the “post-antibiotic era”, which threatens all the achievements of modern medicine. The worldwide spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria is increasingly drawing global attention from authorities and the media due to its potentially catastrophic implications. The pharmaceutical industry’s limited interest in the discovery of new antibiotics or developing new therapeutic strategies is a critical issue, despite the impact such new developments could have on investment returns. Bacteria have demonstrated a rapid ability to develop resistance mechanisms to every new antibiotic. Considerable technological advances, particularly these omics, have allowed for thorough investigations into and characterization of the mode of action and resistance of antibiotics. However, considering the rate of demand, such advances seem to be insufficient in discovering novel antibiotics. Specific and targeted actions are needed to ensure antibiotic sustainability and halt the advance of the “post-antibiotic era”. While the discovery of innovative therapeutic solutions and comprehension of their mechanism of action is fundamental, patient access requirements need to be properly integrated. SARS-COV-2 highlighted the existing interactions between viral and bacterial/fungal infections. However, both the COVID-19 pandemic and Ukrainian/Russian conflict causing a shortage in amoxicillin have presented an unfortunate realization of what the global health situation may become once all commercial antibiotics are unable to treat bacterial infections.

The 3rd International Electronic Conference on Antibiotics will encourage the scientific community and stakeholders to present and discuss recent advances in antibiotic research.

Submissions are welcome on the following topics:

• Epidemiology, Prevalence and Mechanisms of Microbial Resistance.
• Making Old Antibiotics Great Again: How to Reverse Resistance to Antibiotics.
• New Antimicrobial Approaches, Targets and Mechanisms of Action.
• Social Challenges and Political Strategies to Prevent Antibiotic Resistance.
• Antimicrobial Testing and Rapid Diagnostics.
• Impact of Inter-relationship between Viral and Bacterial Infections.

Dr. Marc Maresca
Dr. Manuel Simões
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.