Nutritional Immunity: Mechanisms, Host Effectors and Pathogen Bypass Strategies

Dear Colleagues,

Nutritional immunity is a defense mechanism by which the host sequesters trace minerals from the extracellular space in order to deprive microbial invaders from essential nutrients and thereby reduce their pathogenecity during infection. This process is orchestrated by a panel of host scavengers that possess high affinity for metal ions, thus being able to efficiently modulate metal concentrations in response to microbial attacks. Many proteic factors are at play to control metal homeostasis in the host, including the well-characterized hepcidin and calprotectin, among others. Unraveling the molecular mechanisms governing metal ion sequestration by these scavengers can provide valuable insights for the design of highly potent antimicrobial agents. On the other hand, pathogens have evolved refined evasion strategies to bypass host immune responses, including the hijacking of these scavengers for efficient ion uptake by ion transporters. This Special Issue on “nutritional immunity” welcomes original research and review articles dealing with these questions, with a strong focus on 1) the host molecular effectors of nutritional immunity; 2) the mechanisms used to efficiently sequester metal ions, including the characterization of the ion binding properties of these scavengers, as well as other mechanisms employed by the host to regulate ion concentrations in response to infections; 3) the evasion strategies elaborated by pathogens and the microbial effectors involved; and 4) drug design strategies that may exploit the action of metal scavengers for antibacterial applications.  

Dr. Laure Yatime
Guest Editor

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. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. 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.