Small Molecules in the Fight Against Bacterial and Fungal Infections

Dear Colleagues,

The emergence and worldwide spreading of resistant bacterial and fungal strains are extremely worrying for the humankind as the arising of superbugs can lead to a situation in which current available treatments can be ineffective towards these microorganisms, leaving us without defence against the infections caused by them. Therefore, there is an urgent need to discover novel antibiotics and antifungal agents before reaching that point; it is mandatory to increase the pace in the discovery of new active compounds, as it is necessary that this rhythm is faster than the appearance of the resistances.

This Special Issue intends to provide an overview of the state of the art in the search of novel antibacterial and antifungal agents, and in particular, when this search involves small molecules, following the classical approach of the medicinal chemistry. Recently, molecular modelling, cheminformatics and artificial intelligence are improving and providing a new perspective to the field. Thus, works related to the application of these computer-based techniques of design and screening to the small molecules with antimicrobial and antifungal properties are also encouraged.

Summing up, submissions of research in the in vitro, in vivo, and/or in silico evaluation of small molecules as potential novel antibiotics, antimicrobials or antifungals are welcome in this collection.

Manuscripts describing the use of computational modelling and/or molecular docking programs to predict the structures or activity of new antibiotics will be only considered when they present experimental supporting data, such as biological test results using microorganisms and/or pure protein.

Dr. Enrique Domínguez-Álvarez
Dr. Małgorzata Anna Marć
Guest Editors

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