Redox Enzymes of Bacteria and Parasites as Potential Drug Targets

Dear Colleagues,

The constant emergence of drug-resistant strains of bacteria or parasites dictates the need to update the arsenal of antibacterial and antiparasitic agents and/or to repurpose the already known ones, for example, antitumor or antiviral drugs. On the other hand, a considerable body of empirical data has been accumulated on new potentially interesting antiparasitic and antibacterial agents, but these are insufficiently related to studies of their molecular mechanisms of action and/or identification of targets. The scope of this Special Issue is to try to integrate these studies in a specific field, emphasizing the role of bacterial or parasitic redox enzymes as potential drug targets and revealing the molecular mechanisms of their interactions. Of particular interest are bacterial or parasitic enzymes that are not found in or differ from their counterparts in mammalian organisms, such as electron transport chains of the bacterial plasma membrane and parasite mitochondria and redox enzymes involved in the synthesis of membrane or cell wall components, bacterial dioxygenases, and nitroreductases, the latter being important candidates for gene-directed prodrug therapy of cancer. Another important group is the antioxidant defence and/or thiol metabolism enzymes in bacteria and parasites.

This Special Issue targets research on a molecular to cellular level, including mechanisms of enzymatic reactions, substrate/inhibitor recognition, structure–function relationships, and therapeutic application, utilizing spectroscopic, kinetic, and structural analyses, computational science, and genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics approaches. We believe that this Special Issue, “Redox Enzymes of Bacteria and Parasites as Potential Drug Targets”, will help to highlight the most recent advances in this field.

Prof. Dr. Narimantas K. Cenas
Guest Editor

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• bacteria and parasite electron transport chains
• membrane and cell wall component synthesis
• dioxygenases
• nitroreductases
• antibacterial and antiparasitic agents