Recent Progress in Antimicrobial Peptides
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Microbiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 July 2024 | Viewed by 10346
Special Issue Editor
Interests: antimicrobial peptides
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The alarmingly increasing phenomenon of antibiotic resistance represents a critical restraint for the use of both antibiotics and antibiotic-doped biomaterials. Natural and synthetic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are at the front edge of research as anti-infectives molecules alternative to antibiotics. The amphipathic cationic peptides exhibit broad-spectrum antimicrobial activities against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. They exert an antimicrobial activity even against multidrug-resistant strains and antibiotic-tolerant bacteria within biofilms, the so-called "persister" cells, "dormant" bacteria responsible for the recurrence of the infection. The mechanism of action of AMPs involves their interaction with the constituents of the bacterial cell envelope, a consequent depolarization and destabilization of the bacterial plasma membrane and, finally, the rupture of the membrane and the death of the bacterial cell. To minimize the criticalities of AMPs, such as their poor bioavailability and easy degradability by proteases, advanced nanosystems and nanocoatings are being introduced for drug delivery. This Special Issue plans to give an overview of the latest advances in the field of AMPs and of their applications in AMPs-functionalized anti-infective materials. It also aims to encourage the development and characterization of novel AMPs together with innovative nanotechnology-based delivery systems to exploit the broad anti-infectious properties of AMPs.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) synthesis and characterization
- AMPs in the era of antibiotic-resistance
- AMPs-doped and AMPs-releasing biomaterials and coatings
- Cytotoxicity of AMPs
- AMPs and mesenchymal stem cells
- Role of AMPs in medicine
- AMPs and biofilms
- AMPs, cancer, chronic inflammation
- Novel antibacterial peptides with high selectivity indexes
- Nanotechnology-based delivery systems for AMPs.
Prof. Dr. Carla Renata Arciola
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- anti-microbial peptides (AMPs)
- antibiotic-resistance
- anti-infective materials
- implant infections
- bacterial biofilms
- drug-delivery systems
- nanotechnologies
- nanocoatings
- mesenchymal stem cells
- cancer
- chronic inflammation