Advances in Microbial Pathogenesis and Host Responses

Dear Colleagues,

Medical and biological studies are continuously focused on the search for efficient strategies able to reduce the incidence of traditional infectious diseases, as well as emerging and re-emerging infections, to improve the individuals’ health and quality of life worldwide and to reduce problems affecting the public health system.

However, despite many successes in this field, infectious diseases still pose a serious threat to public health globally, particularly in low- and middle-income countries; one of the main causes is the continuous expansion of antibiotic resistance phenomena, but in recent years, it has been highlighted that climate change and human mobility are also able to increase the rate of microbial and zoonotic infections. In addition, it has been increasingly established that many microorganisms are associated with or predispose people to the pathogenesis of various chronic diseases, including cancers.

The mechanisms of microbial pathogenesis are significantly influenced by the host response.

Host–pathogen interaction is a highly dynamic process between different microbial pathogens and hosts at all stages of pathogenic infection, from invasion to spread. Following pathogenic infection, the innate immune system responds to pathogen-associated molecular patterns and activates immediate host inflammatory and antimicrobial responses.

Innate host immune activation results in the production of multiple effective molecules, including cytokines and chemokines, as well as antimicrobial proteins, to fight off invading pathogens and parasites; however, many intracellular pathogens employ a variety of evolved strategies to escape, modulate, and hijack host immunity during infection.

In this scenario, it is crucial that we improve our knowledge of both the mechanisms of microbial pathogenicity and the host–pathogen interaction, and investigate the role of the microbiome in health and disease; this is in order to gain new insights into the identification of novel targets for host effectors and microbial virulence factors, and to develop new therapeutic strategies and solutions against microbial infections.

In this Special Issue, we intend to invite front-line researchers and authors to submit original research and review articles on advances in microbial pathogenesis and the host response.

Dr. Alessandra Fusco
Dr. Giovanna Donnarumma
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. Microorganisms 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.

• microbial infections
• pathogenesis
• microbiota
• immune response
• host-pathogen interactions
• antibiotic resistance
• clinical microbiology
• public health
• drug development
• new therapeutic strategies