Antibiotic Synthesis, 2nd Edition

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 966

Special Issue Editors

School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Interests: medicinal chemistry; antimicrobials; peptidomimetics; quorum sensing; Antibiofilm
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria threatens the effectiveness of current antibiotics. It is projected that by 2050, antimicrobial resistance will cause 10 million deaths annually. Bacteria continue to evolve at a rate that surpasses drug development, highlighting a necessity for new drugs with mechanisms that inhibit resistance development. Furthermore, this situation is exacerbated by a reduction in the pace of development of novel classes of antibiotics.

Potential strategies to overcome this dilemma are highlighted below:

i) Discovery of new antimicrobial agents from natural sources and their synthetic derivatives;
ii) The design and synthesis of antimicrobial compounds with novel mechanisms of action;
iii)  Targeted delivery of antimicrobial agents;
iv) Combination therapy involving antibiotics and new antimicrobial agents;
v) Synthesis of dual- and multi-action antibiotics;
vi) Synthesis of adjuvants to enhance the potency of antibiotics;
vii) Exploiting innate bacterial responses to develop new antibiotics.

The Special Issue will publish contemporary research on the discovery and development of new classes of antibiotic compounds, as well as dual-action antimicrobials and other combination strategies. It is my pleasure to invite submissions of high-quality research-based papers related to the topics mentioned above.

Prof. Dr. Naresh Kumar
Dr. Tsz Tin Yu
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

  • new antimicrobial compounds
  • dual-action antimicrobials
  • new antimicrobial targets
  • targeted delivery of antibiotics
  • new scaffolds for antimicrobial discovery
  • discovery of new antimicrobial mechanisms

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

29 pages, 5042 KB  
Article
Tuning the Structure–Functional Properties Within Peptide-Mimicking Antimicrobial Hydrogels
by Samuel T. Attard, Vina R. Aldilla, Rajesh Kuppusamy, Renxun Chen, David StC Black, Pall Thordarson, Mark D. P. Willcox and Naresh Kumar
Antibiotics 2025, 14(11), 1118; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics14111118 - 5 Nov 2025
Viewed by 719
Abstract
Background/Objectives: There is a growing demand for the development of novel antimicrobial agents due to their efficacy being eroded by increasing antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial hydrogels have been reported as a method to treat bacterial infections. Methods: This study explores how different structural features [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: There is a growing demand for the development of novel antimicrobial agents due to their efficacy being eroded by increasing antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial hydrogels have been reported as a method to treat bacterial infections. Methods: This study explores how different structural features are important for the hydrogelation properties of amphiphilic antimicrobial peptide-mimics through rheology and AFM, as well as properties important for antimicrobial activity measured through MIC. Results: Eleven novel peptide-mimicking anthranilamides containing various structural features were synthesised in 4–7 steps. Of these peptide-mimics, three novel compounds formed hydrogels, and it was identified that their mechanical strength, secondary structure, and fibre morphology could be tuned by altering the aromatic cap or the amino acid side chain. In conjunction, several structural features were identified that reduce hydrogelation strength and stiffness. Conclusions: This work provides an insight into how the structural features of low-molecular-weight self-assembling hydrogels can translate to differing physical and potent antimicrobial properties. This work provides a rational guide to optimising physical hydrogel properties, as well as highlighting features that may reduce hydrogelation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antibiotic Synthesis, 2nd Edition)
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