Marine Natural Products with Antiprotozoal Activity

Dear Colleagues,

Infections caused by protozoan parasites are responsible for a large number of severe and widespread diseases which include malaria, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease or human African trypanosomiasis, among others. They mostly affect rural and poor urban areas of tropical and subtropical regions causing a considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide. Current drug treatments are ineffective due to drug resistance and toxicity in addition to their high cost and prolonged treatments. The search for new lead compounds with novel mechanisms of action for development of more effective treatments with fewer side effects represents a crucial challenge.

The marine environment is plenty of microorganisms, algae and marine invertebrates which are a rich potential source of novel molecules with high structural diversity and “drug-like” properties. Accordingly, the aim of this Marine Drugs Special Issue is to cover new findings on bioactive molecules from marine natural sources or natural product-inspired compounds produced by synthesis with properties against protozoan parasites, highlighting novel structural features, bioactivities and mechanisms of action. Review articles in the field will also be considered.

As Guest Editors of this Special Issue of Marine Drugs, We encourage scientists working in any field involving marine natural products with antiprotozoal activities to submit recent research that may lead to significant advances.

Dr. Ana R. Diaz-Marrero
Dr. Jacob Lorenzo-Morales
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 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-anonymized 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.