Discovery and Structure Optimization of Antibacterial Natural Products
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 3
Special Issue Editor
2. School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Interests: isolation of natural products; structure optimization; synthesis; evaluation of activity/mechanisms
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Natural products (NPs) have been an important source of drug discovery and development due to their novel structures and wide range of pharmacological activities. Most antibiotics are derived from NPs and their derivatives, such as penicillin G, amoxicillin, oxytetracycline, and minocycline. NPs have particular advantages over purely synthetic molecules. First, they are evolutionarily “optimized” structurally for specific biological functions, including anti-infection, interaction with other organisms, and receptor/protein binding. Second, NPs have a broader chemical space than typical synthetic small molecule compound libraries, bringing the advantages of scaffold diversity and structural novelty. Third, due to the large number of sp3 carbon atoms and chiral centers, NPs have the unique ability to interact with receptors and targeting selectivity, thereby exhibiting multiple antimicrobial mechanisms of action, such as disrupting bacterial cell membranes and inhibiting cell wall synthesis. Therefore, NP-based antimicrobial drug discovery is one of the hot topics in current research. To showcase the latest developments in this field, we are launching a Special Issue in the journal Molecules titled “Discovery and Structure Optimization of Antibacterial Natural Products”.
Dr. Yong Guo
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- natural products
- structure optimization
- antibiotic discovery
- antibacterial activity
- scaffold diversity
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