Tuberculosis: Immunopathogenesis and Therapeutic Strategies
A special issue of Biomolecules (ISSN 2218-273X). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Medicine".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2024 | Viewed by 2158
Special Issue Editors
Interests: tuberculosis; immune responses; human; pathogenesis; host-directed therapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Tuberculosis (TB) is the ninth leading cause of death worldwide, and every 20 seconds a person dies from TB disease. Of the 10.4 million people that fell ill with TB last year, 0.6 million were infected with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). Despite the efficacious ‘four-drug’ standard regiment for TB, the global cure rate is only 54% for MDR-TB compared to 83% for drug-susceptible TB. New anti-TB drugs such as bedaquiline, delamanid and pretomanid are successfully used to treat MDR/XDR infections, however, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) effectively develops resistance also to these new compounds and clinical resistance was reported less than three years after their introduction. This underscores the need to find new treatment strategies that could cure or improve clinical outcome of serious TB infections and combat the problems with drug-resistance. It is conceivable that the effect of old as well as new antimicrobial agents could be improved by host-directed therapies that restore protective immunity. Mtb has evolved a remarkable ability to manipulate the human immune response including epigenetic changes induced by virulent bacteria as well as changes in host cell metabolism or tissue-remodelling that will compromise immune functions at the site of infection. New findings related to immunopathogenesis in TB would enhance the development of immunomodulatory interventions that can strengthen host cell functions and support conventional chemotherapy.
In this Special Issue, we welcome the submission of original research, review, opinion, and perspective articles focusing on, but not limited to, the following areas of interest:
- Molecular basis of drug resistance;
- Identification of novel anti-TB drugs;
- Molecules targeting key pathways for mycobacterial survival and replication;
- Epigenetic changes induced by virulent mycobacteria;
- Immunometabolic changes in tb disease;
- Studies of host–pathogen interactions in vivo, ex vivo, in situ and in vitro;
- Local immune responses in granulomatous TB lesions;
- Tissue repair and remodelling mechanisms with relevance for immune cell function in TB;
- Research and advances on therapeutic agents that can enter TB lesions;
- Novel compounds with relevance for host-directed therapies in TB.
Dr. Susanna Brighenti
Dr. Gabriela Godaly
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. Biomolecules 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.
Keywords
- tuberculosis
- drug resistance
- granulomatous inflammation
- pathogenesis
- immune responses
- immunomodulation
- host-directed therapy
- antimicrobial treatment
- antimicrobial mechanisms
- antimicrobial agents
