Targeting Bacterial and Host Metabolic Enzymes to Overcome Antibiotic Resistance
A Special Issue of Biomedicines (ISSN 2227-9059) belonging to the section "Microbiology in Human Health and Disease".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 174
Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The rapid escalation of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a defining challenge of modern medicine, threatening to render existing clinical treatments obsolete. Traditional antibiotic discovery has long focused on a narrow set of targets, such as cell wall synthesis and DNA replication; however, recent scientific shifts have highlighted the pivotal role of metabolic reprogramming, in both the pathogen and the host, as a sophisticated mechanism of survival and resistance.
This Special Issue aims to explore the untapped potential of targeting essential metabolic enzymes as a dual-front strategy to combat multidrug-resistant pathogens. We seek to highlight research that moves beyond "direct-acting" antimicrobials to focus on metabolic pathways governing bacterial virulence, energy production, and biofilm formation. Furthermore, we emphasize Host-Directed Therapies (HDTs), where modulating host metabolic enzymes or nutritional immunity can deprive pathogens of essential nutrients or enhance the host's innate immune clearance.
In alignment with recent breakthroughs in natural product chemistry and computational drug discovery, this Special Issue encourages submissions that utilize integrative approaches to identify novel inhibitors from terrestrial and marine biodiversity. We welcome original research and review articles involving phytochemical profiling, molecular docking, and network pharmacology to map the interaction between small-molecule leads and metabolic targets. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to: the inhibition of bacterial lipid and central carbon metabolism; host-directed metabolic interventions to starve pathogens or boost immunometabolism; synergistic strategies combining metabolic inhibitors with traditional antibiotics to reverse resistance; the development of biogenic nanoparticles and delivery systems for targeted metabolic disruption; and the use of structural databases or in silico modelling to accelerate lead discovery for multi-target ligands.
By bridging the gap between metabolic biochemistry and clinical pharmacology, this collection aims to provide a comprehensive roadmap for the next generation of therapeutics in the post-antibiotic era.
Dr. Yeun Mun Choo
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
- host-directed therapy (HDT)
- host-directed therapy (HDT)
- natural products
- drug discovery
- drug repurposing
- enzyme inhibition
- ESKAPE pathogens
- MDR
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