Drug Resistance and Antimicrobial Activities of Natural Products

Dear Colleagues,

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an urgent global health challenge that increasingly undermines the effectiveness of current therapies. Natural products—from plants, fungi, bacteria, marine organisms, and animal-derived metabolites—remain a rich and underexploited source of structurally diverse scaffolds and novel mechanisms of action that can help address drug-resistant pathogens.

This Special Issue ‘Drug Resistance and Antimicrobial Activities of Natural Products’ seeks high-quality original research articles and critical reviews that advance our understanding of how natural molecules and extracts can prevent, circumvent, or reverse antimicrobial resistance. We welcome studies on discovery and bioassay-guided isolation, chemical characterization and structure–activity relationships, modes of antimicrobial and antivirulence action (including antibiofilm and anti-persister activity), resistance development and genetic responses, and strategies to enhance efficacy such as synergistic combinations, formulation, and targeted delivery. 

Typical topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Discovery and characterization of antimicrobial natural products;
• Mechanisms of action and resistance;
• Synergy with existing antibiotics and antivirulence approaches;
• Antibiofilm and anti-persister strategies;
• Biotechnological production, semisynthesis and drug-delivery systems.

The submitted manuscripts should follow the journal’s standard peer-review process and present clear experimental design, rigorous antimicrobial testing (including resistance and tolerance assays where appropriate), and discussion of translational potential. We invite authors from natural-product chemistry, microbiology, pharmacology, and related disciplines to submit their latest findings. 

Dr. Krzysztof Skowron
Dr. Katarzyna Grudlewska-Buda
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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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.