Novel Antimicrobials for ESKAPE Pathogens: From Research to Treatment

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "Novel Antimicrobial Agents".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 533

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
Interests: medicinal chemistry; antimicrobial resistance; antimicrobial agents; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; autophagy; iron based antimicrobial agents; asthama and COPD; anticancer agents

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Guest Editor
Inflammation and Immunity, Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland, OH, USA
Interests: drug discovery; medicinal chemistry; antimicrobial resistance

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Guest Editor
Department of Public Health and Pediatric Sciences, University of Torino, Torino, Italy
Interests: new antimicrobial drug-delivery systems; gram- negative AMR pathogens; Acinetobater baumannii; antibiotic resistance mechanisms

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses one of the most serious threats to global public health, a challenge further exacerbated by the declining number of truly novel antimicrobial agents in the pharmaceutical pipeline. Over the past decades, AMR has increased at an alarming rate, becoming a critical worldwide issue for modern healthcare systems. This crisis has led to substantially higher rates of morbidity and mortality in both community and hospital settings. In the United States alone, more than 2 million infections and approximately 23,000 deaths annually are attributed to antibiotic-resistant Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species, collectively known as the ESKAPE pathogens. These microorganisms are responsible for the majority of hospital-acquired infections and are particularly notorious for their ability to evade the effects of existing antibiotics through diverse resistance mechanisms, including drug inactivation, target modification, efflux, and biofilm formation.

This Special Issue aims to highlight recent advances and emerging strategies to combat ESKAPE pathogens and address the urgent global need for next-generation antimicrobial therapies, including metal-based antimicrobials, anti-biofilm strategies, host-directed therapies, antimicrobial peptides, nanomaterials, and combination treatments. By focusing on innovative approaches that go beyond conventional antibiotics, this Special Issue seeks to provide a coherent and impactful resource for the research community.

Dr. Nalin Abeydeera
Dr. Bishnu Pant
Dr. Sara Scutera
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • antimicrobial resistance
  • ESKAPE pathogens
  • novel antibiotics
  • metal-based antimicrobials
  • antibiofilm agents
  • drug discovery
  • nanomaterials
  • host-directed therapy
  • combination therapy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

26 pages, 5054 KB  
Review
Decoding Host–Pathogen Dynamics in Klebsiella pneumoniae Infections: Mechanisms of Cell Death Regulation and Host-Directed Therapies for Sepsis
by Shwetha Susan Thomas, Krishnakripa Kannan, Kuniyil Abhinand, Arjun M. Menon, Gayathri Ranjith, Shima Merin Sony, Pradeesh Babu, Geetha B. Kumar, Bipin G. Nair, KB Arun, Lekshmi K. Edison and Aravind Madhavan
Antibiotics 2026, 15(5), 505; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics15050505 - 18 May 2026
Viewed by 201
Abstract
Pathogenic microbes utilize virulence strategies to subvert host immune responses, highlighting a continuous race between the pathogen and the host. The emergence of multidrug- resistant and hypervirulent strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) poses a critical threat to public health. This critical [...] Read more.
Pathogenic microbes utilize virulence strategies to subvert host immune responses, highlighting a continuous race between the pathogen and the host. The emergence of multidrug- resistant and hypervirulent strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) poses a critical threat to public health. This critical evaluation identifies key gaps in understanding the interplay between Kp and host innate immunity. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the mechanisms by which Kp triggers various forms of cell death. Dysregulated cell death may exacerbate cytokine release, contributing to the hyperinflammatory response characteristic of sepsis. The rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Kp necessitates the exploration of alternative therapeutic approaches. This review highlights that immunomodulatory approaches targeting cell death regulators or immune checkpoints may offer host-directed strategies against Kp-induced sepsis. Although novel immunotherapies offer potential to restore immune balance, their clinical applicability remains constrained by limited translational evidence. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Antimicrobials for ESKAPE Pathogens: From Research to Treatment)
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