Antiviral Activity from the Ocean: Small Molecules, Peptides, Proteins, and Phages
A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Pharmacology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 290
Special Issue Editors
Interests: antibiotics; cancer drugs; COVID medications; pharmaceutical aquaculture
Interests: antivirals; antiviral drug resistance; DNA viruses
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The evolution of marine life for more than 3 billion years has led to ecosystems rich in biodiversity. Since the mid-20th century, marine organisms have been a source of natural product discovery. For example, several anticancer and antibacterial drugs have origins in marine organisms. Many of these bioactive compounds are derived from host-associated microbes and microbial interactions.
There are a small number of anti-viral drugs that have advanced through pre-clinical and into clinical trials. The first HIV drug, Azidothymidine (AZT), was originally extracted from the Caribbean sponge Tectitethya crypta. Like many other natural products from terrestrial and marine environments, nature provided the structural blueprint, and scientists developed an economical lab-based synthesis.
One milliliter of seawater contains up to 1 million bacteria and up to 10 million viruses/phages. In the world's oceans, from coastal ecosystems to muck at the bottom of the Mariana trench, there are billions/trillions of bacterium species (with most yet to be discovered). A bacterium's chemical defense systems (which we call anti-viral properties) against viruses/phages have been finely tuned by evolution. The bacterium–viral interaction is just one example of a potential source of new anti-viral drugs.
The focus of this Special Issue will be divided into two parts: 1. Molecules, peptides, and proteins with antiviral potential produced by marine species ranging from bacteria to invertebrates; and 2. the in vitro and in vivo activities beyond preliminary screening of antivirals produced by marine species ranging from bacteria to invertebrates. We invite both reviews and original research articles. In addition to providing the latest research in this area, we hope that the vast relatively unexplored potential of marine environments intrigues researchers.
Prof. Dr. Thomas J. Manning
Dr. Scott H. James
Dr. Sydney Plummer
Guest Editors
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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. Marine Drugs is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 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
- marine
- natural product
- drug
- pharmaceutical
- ocean
- antivirals
- infection
- invertebrate
- in vitro
- in vivo
- bacteria
- algae
- coral
- sponge
- phage
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