Innovative Approaches to Antibody-Mediated Therapies for Infectious Diseases

Dear Colleagues,

Antibody-mediated therapies are revolutionizing the fight against infectious diseases, offering new and innovative approaches to prevention and treatment. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) mimic the natural antibodies the body generates to combat infections. MAbs are engineered to specifically target and neutralize pathogens or block their ability to infect cells. This approach has proven particularly effective against viral infections like COVID-19 and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), where specific mAbs have received emergency use authorization and are actively being used to treat or prevent infections. However, a mAb targeting a specific epitope will allow escape variants to excessively grow, causing new variant strains to become dominant and resistant to treatment using that mAb. Methods to mitigate escape include adding mAbs to cocktails, creating scFv, bi-specific, or antibody drug conjugates, but these strategies have also been challenged by the potential development of escape mutations. New technologies Also, other techniques like effector function, prolonging the half-life, reducing immunogenicity, and targeting conserved pathways are actively being applied to modify antibodies to enhance their efficacy and safety in treating infectious diseases.

Dr. Adinarayana Kunamneni
Dr. Yash Gupta
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. Pathogens 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 2400 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.