Antimicrobial Tolerance and Biofilm-Driven Resistance: Mechanisms, Models and Therapeutic Challenges

Biofilm formation is a major driver of antimicrobial resistance and therapeutic failure across clinical, environmental, veterinary, and industrial settings. By growing as structured communities embedded in a self-produced extracellular matrix, microorganisms acquire enhanced tolerance to antimicrobial agents, evade host immune responses, and persist under adverse conditions. Biofilm-driven antimicrobial resistance is a multifactorial phenomenon involving reduced antimicrobial penetration, metabolic heterogeneity, persister cell formation, stress-response activation, quorum sensing, extracellular matrix-mediated protection, and horizontal gene transfer.
This Special Issue, “Antimicrobial Tolerance and Biofilm-Driven Resistance: Mechanisms, Models and Therapeutic Challenges”, aims to collect high-quality research and review articles that address the biological, methodological, and translational dimensions of biofilm-associated resistance. Contributions focusing on bacterial and fungal biofilms, single-species and polymicrobial communities, multidrug-resistant pathogens, host–biofilm interactions, and environmental or One Health reservoirs of resistance are particularly welcome.

Special attention will be given to experimental models that improve our understanding of biofilm biology and antimicrobial tolerance, including in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo models, as well as advanced microfluidic systems. Studies addressing biofilm detection, biofilm-informed antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and clinically relevant models of chronic, recurrent, and device-associated infections are also encouraged.
The Special Issue further welcomes contributions exploring innovative strategies to prevent, disrupt, or eradicate biofilms, including quorum-sensing inhibitors, matrix-disrupting agents, antimicrobial peptides, bacteriophages, nanoparticles, drug repurposing, combination therapies, and alternative or adjunctive approaches to conventional antimicrobials.
By integrating mechanistic insights, advanced models, and therapeutic perspectives, this Special Issue seeks to advance our understanding of biofilm-driven antimicrobial resistance and to support the development of more effective strategies for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of biofilm-related infections.

Prof. Dr. Giovanni Di Bonaventura
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-anonymized 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.