Natural Antimicrobial Agents: Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation

Dear Colleagues,

The emergence of multi-drug resistance in common human pathogens has highlighted the need to develop novel classes of antimicrobials for the treatment of human disease. Antibiotics are no longer the magic bullets they were once thought to be, and therefore there is an urgent need for the development of alternative therapeutic strategies to combat infections without inducing drug resistance. Naturally produced chemicals are of fundamental importance in biological systems. Such chemicals are used to mediate interactions across all levels of biological hierarchy, and have tremendous potential for the discovery of new antimicrobial entities. Natural antimicrobial scaffolds can also act as inspiration for the design and synthesis of new antimicrobial agents.

Several topics in this research area are discussed:

1. Isolation and structure elucidation of natural products with antimicrobial activities;
2. Synthesis of antimicrobial natural product analogues;
3. Synthesis of new classes of natural antimicrobial agents with anti-virulence and anti-biofilm properties;
4. Rational design of antimicrobial agents based on natural products;
5. Structure–activity relationship studies of natural antimicrobial agents;
6. Applications and targeted delivery of natural antimicrobial agents;
7. Synergistic activities of natural antimicrobial agents.

Molecules will publish a Special Issue focusing on “Natural Antimicrobial Agents: Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation”. It is my pleasure to invite submissions of high-quality research-based papers related to the topics mentioned above.

Prof. Dr. Naresh Kumar
Dr. Renxun Chen
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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.