The 20th Anniversary of Pharmaceuticals—The application of Adjuvants and Nanomaterials in Antimicrobial Intervention

Dear Colleagues,

Current antimicrobial agents have limited efficacy in treating microbial pathogens, especially those resistant to conventional drugs. A stagnation in development of new, effective antimicrobial agents is also a public health concern. One of the new approaches to tackle these problems involves the use of adjuvants. Typically used in vaccines or in medicine, adjuvants enhance the activity of co-delivered drugs, antigens or other agents.  Antimicrobial adjuvants are safe molecules (either synthetic or natural) and when co-applied with an antimicrobial agent can achieve a synergistic interaction. By definition, the adjuvants do not necessarily possess potent antimicrobial activity. However, this approach can provide a safe, economic means of enhancing the efficacy of antimicrobial agents that could lower dosages of the active ingredients. Furthermore, use of adjuvants can also overcome pathogen resistance to conventional antimicrobial agents. Nanotechnology approaches for drug delivery systems and new drugs could also provide the strategies for effective control of microbial pathogens, which not only counteract emerging microbial infections but also overcome the increase in drug-resistant strains. The approaches include the application of nanoparticles (chitosan, metallic, biodegradable polymers, etc.). Nanoparticles can be tailored to the desired application to achive effects that can destabilize microbial cell structures, enclosing multiple drugs within the same nanoparticle interfering with the microbial resistance mechanisms, utilize liposomes-based formulations that overcome decreased uptake and increased efflux of drugs, or deliver drugs directly to the target site of infection enabling localized release of high doses of drugs while minimizing total dosage needed and potential systemic side-effects.

This Special Issue invites both reviews and original articles elucidating recent progress on antimicrobial intervention. Topics include but are not limited to the identification of new antimicrobial actives, particularly adjuvants such as redox molecules, natural products, repurposed drugs/compounds, efflux pump inhibitors (EPI), etc., development of new nanotechnology strategy for antimicrobial disruption or drug delivery, elucidation of the mechanisms of antimicrobial synergism, and hence, providing platforms to discover possible new intervention strategies while highlighting the challenges of the translation of the identified adjuvants or nanomaterials into the clinical pipeline. Nanoparticles developed in vaccine technology are also considered if showing novel application such as transdermal delivery or intracellular antimicrobial release, etc. The collection of manuscripts will be published as a Special Issue of Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Jong Heon Kim
Dr. William Hart-Cooper
Dr. Jennifer Wilson-Welder
Dr. Rohana Dassanayake
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 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. Pharmaceuticals 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 2900 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.

• alternatives to antibiotics
• antimicrobial/antibacterial
• biodegradable polymers
• infectious diseases
• molecule repurposing
• nanotechnology
• natural products
• redox molecules
• selective optimization
• synergism