Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Diagnostics and Genomic/Molecular Epidemiology of Multidrug-Resistant Isolates

Dear Colleagues,

The treatment and outcomes of healthcare-acquired infections have been severely threatened by the increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) worldwide. AMR is determined by a variety of mechanisms, including mainly enzymatic drug hydrolysis or modification, target site structural change by mutation, recombination or enzymatic modification, and drug level decrease by efflux or permeability alteration. Some organisms are naturally resistant to an antibiotic(s) due to the target absence or activity of a chromosomally encoded mechanism occurring in all isolates of a species. Acquired AMR genes are localized in the chromosome or on plasmid(s) and may spread with organisms in which they have emerged (clonal spread) or appear in new isolates of the same or different species by the horizontal DNA transfer, associated with various mobile genetic elements (e.g., transposable elements, plasmids, bacteriophages). AMR affects both first-line drugs, thanks to which specific pathogens have been controlled over years, but also last-line drugs, which until recently guaranteed therapeutic success in the treatment of serious infections. Finally, pathogens have been constantly accumulating different types of AMR mechanisms, including those against different drug classes, resulting in their multidrug resistance (MDR). New terminology was launched to describe extensively drug-resistant (XDR) and pan drug-resistant (PDR) phenotypes, with very limited or no treatment options, and their major Gram-negative representatives are K. pneumoniae (and other Enterobacterales), Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Accordingly, this Special Issue focuses on all approaches to characterizing the epidemiology of multidrug-resistant isolates, including antibiotic susceptibility profiles and AMR mechanisms, identification of particularly dangerous clones, and any studies aimed at improving the implementation of infection control measures to reduce the prevalence of these pathogens.

Prof. Dr. Anna Baraniak
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 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. Microorganisms 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 2700 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.

• enterobacterales
• antibiotic resistance
• ß-lactamases
• carbapenemases
• multidrug-resistant isolates
• epidemiology