Natural Alternatives and Their Synthetic Derivatives to Antibiotics

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant-Derived Antibiotics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 851

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Pharmacy, University “G. d'Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
Interests: chemical modification of natural compounds; medicinal chemistry; food chemistry; antioxidants; antimicrobials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to gather some of the most significant and recent contributions in the interdisciplinary area of medicinal chemistry, microbiology, pharmacology, pharmacognosy, and food chemistry, with a particular emphasis on the production/synthesis, isolation from complex extracts and full characterization, biological effects, uses, and toxicity of natural products and their semi-synthetic derivatives. The applications of natural active compounds must be strictly focused on bacterial infections, food contamination and preservation, in silico characterization, screening, inhibition of biofilm production and resistance development, herbal formulations, new mechanisms of action, structure–activity elucidation, chemically modified natural compounds with improved biological activity and their synergism with clinically approved drugs. Manuscripts on the biological activity of natural extracts without proper chemical characterization will not be considered.

Dr. Simone Carradori
Guest Editor

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. Antibiotics 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.

Keywords

  • antibacterial agents
  • quorum sensing inhibitors
  • food contamination and preservation
  • innovative (micro)extraction procedures
  • synthetic derivatives inspired by natural scaffolds
  • uses of components from medicinal plants and fungi
  • biofilm and antimicrobial resistance

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

16 pages, 1739 KiB  
Article
Phyllanthus niruri Linn.: Antibacterial Activity, Phytochemistry, and Enhanced Antibiotic Combinatorial Strategies
by Gagan Tiwana, Ian E. Cock and Matthew J. Cheesman
Antibiotics 2024, 13(7), 654; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics13070654 - 16 Jul 2024
Viewed by 150
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health threat caused by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics. It leads to infections becoming difficult to treat, causing serious illness, disability, and death. Current antibiotic development is slow, with only 25% of current antibiotics exhibiting [...] Read more.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health threat caused by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics. It leads to infections becoming difficult to treat, causing serious illness, disability, and death. Current antibiotic development is slow, with only 25% of current antibiotics exhibiting novel mechanisms against critical pathogens. Traditional medicinal plants’ secondary metabolites offer potential for developing novel antibacterial compounds. These compounds, often with strong antimicrobial activity, can be used to develop safe and effective antibacterial chemotherapies. This study investigated the antibacterial activity of Phyllanthus niruri Linn. extracts against a panel of bacterial pathogens using disc diffusion and microdilution assays and quantified by calculation of minimum inhibition concentration (MIC). Additionally, the effects of combinations of the extracts and selected conventional antibiotics were examined by sum of fractional inhibition concentration (ƩFIC) calculation and isobologram analysis. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) phytochemistry analysis was used to identify noteworthy compounds in the active extracts and the Artemia nauplii bioassay was used to evaluate toxicity. The aqueous and methanolic extracts exhibited notable antibacterial activity in the broth microdilution assay against Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) (MIC = 669 µg/mL and 738 µg/mL, respectively). The methanolic extract also showed noteworthy antibacterial action in the broth assay against Klebsiella pneumoniae (MIC = 738 µg/mL). The aqueous extract had noteworthy growth inhibitory activity against Bacillus cereus (MIC = 669 µg/mL), whilst the methanolic extract demonstrated good antibacterial activity against that bacterium (MIC = 184 µg/mL). The aqueous and methanol extracts showed minimal antibacterial action against Shigella flexneri and Shigella sonnei. The extracts were subjected to LC-MS analysis, which revealed several interesting phytochemicals, including a variety of flavonoids and tannins. The antibacterial activity and lack of toxicity of the P. niruri extracts indicates that they may be worthwhile targets for antibiotic development and further mechanistic and phytochemistry studies are required. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Alternatives and Their Synthetic Derivatives to Antibiotics)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Back to TopTop