Natural Compounds: A New Strategy to Fight the Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance

Dear Colleagues,

Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health and food security. It occurs naturally, but the overuse and misuse of antibiotics are key factors contributing to its onset. Antibiotic resistance leads to longer hospital stays, increased mortality, and higher medical costs. The microorganisms adopt many strategies to defend themselves against attack by antimicrobial drugs, including the ability to develop biofilms. Biofilms can be defined as complex structures constituted by cells within a self-produced extracellular polymeric substances matrix, a mixture of exopolysaccharides; proteins, extracellular DNA, and, in some cases, extracellular vesicles. Biofilm development induces antibiotic tolerance and protection from the host immune system, making microbial biofilms difficult to eradicate. The use of natural compounds as well as the identification of new molecules or natural compounds derivatives with antimicrobial and/or antibiofilm activities may contribute to fight the spread of antimicrobial resistance. Natural active compounds and derivatives may be used to treat microbial infections, eradication and prevention, food contamination and preservation, as well as the inhibition and/or eradication of biofilm. These agents could also be a promising starting point for an optimization process carried out by medicinal chemists to understand the structural requirements for these activities.

The proposed Special Issue will be an updated collection of articles focused on the study of single bioactive natural compounds and their semisynthetic derivatives with improved biological activity or pharmacokinetics showing potent antimicrobial and antibiofilm activities. The aim is to collect some of the most significant and recent contributions in the interdisciplinary areas of (food) microbiology, medicinal chemistry, natural products, pathology, and pharmacology for a potential application in the molecular biology field as well as in food preservation. Submissions of original research articles and review articles are strongly encouraged.

Dr. Gabriella Mincione
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.