Antimicrobial Peptides in Nature: Inspiration for Rationally Designed Antimicrobials
A special issue of Biomolecules (ISSN 2218-273X). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural and Bio-derived Molecules".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 1019
Special Issue Editors
2. Faculty of Pharmacy, University Business Academy in Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
Interests: computer-aided molecular design; molecular dynamics; docking; in silico screening; structural chemistry; NMR spectroscopy; antimicrobial resistance; multidrug resistance; efflux pump inhibition; antimicrobial peptides; dendrimer design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: peptide therapeutics; antimicrobial peptides; peptide mimetics; peptide–membrane interactions; peptide NMR; amino acid synthesis; peptide modification; antimicrobial resistance
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to invite contributions to this Special Issue of Biomolecules entitled ‘Antimicrobial Peptides in Nature: Inspiration for Rationally Designed Antimicrobials’. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are found in all domains of life and are important for both immunity and host defense. With increasing resistance to traditional antibiotics, AMPs are attracting attention as potential alternatives. The extraordinary structural diversity of naturally occurring AMPs and their varied mechanisms of action mean that they are an abundant source of inspiration for new antimicrobials. However, the clinical translation of AMPs faces challenges, including low stability and problems with selectivity for bacterial over eukaryotic cell membranes. The rational design of new and improved antimicrobial agents, inspired by AMP structures in nature, may offer potential solutions to these problems.
For this Special Issue, we welcome the submission of research and review articles that focus on naturally occurring AMPs and rational design approaches towards novel or improved AMPs and antimicrobial agents. We wish to include both theoretical and experimental approaches to peptide discovery and design, including those that enhance the activity, selectivity, or stability of naturally occurring peptides. We also welcome studies on the (bio)synthesis and medicinal chemistry of antimicrobial peptides and peptidomimetic agents (including their design using structure and sequence similarity and deep learning approaches) alongside analysis of resultant properties using bioactivity assays or biophysical and structural characterization.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Mire Zloh
Dr. Rachael Dickman
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 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
- antimicrobial resistance
- antimicrobial peptides
- rational design of peptides
- antimicrobial peptide synthesis
- peptidomimetic antimicrobial agents
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