Development and Application of Plant Antimicrobial Substance—2nd Volume

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 2171

Special Issue Editors

Department of Human Sciences and Quality of Life Promotion, San Raffaele Roma Open University, 00166 Rome, Italy
Interests: cell viability; cell survival; inflammation; apoptosis; RNA and protein expression; cell signaling; molecular pathway; natural compounds
Department of Drug and Health Sciences, Section of Microbiology, University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Interests: antimicrobial resistance; bacterial adhesion; biofilm; natural extracts; nanoparticles
Department of Medicine and Surgery, “Kore” University of Enna, 94100 Enna, Italy
Interests: antimicrobial resistance; bacterial adhesion; biofilm; natural extracts; drug delivery systems; clinical infectious diseases
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Officinal plants were traditionally used to treat or alleviate infectious and chronic diseases. Their health-beneficial properties are mediated by a pool of bioactive molecules contained in the plants. Over the last few decades, growing antimicrobial resistance has seriously compromised the efficacy of antimicrobial agents. These events strongly promoted the study of biological activities of natural extracts in order to find interesting antimicrobial agents, which allow us to overcome the current therapeutic limitations.

Numerous studies have focused on infectious diseases, confirming the ability of plant extracts to inhibit the in vitro growth of many human pathogens. Many studies also investigated the phytochemical analysis of natural extracts, revealing the biologically active substances and their mechanisms of action. However, only a few studies proved the development and therapeutic applicability of the natural bioactive compounds, probably because these compounds possess an intrinsic efficacy too low to be usable in clinical practice without the risk of harmful side-effects.

The focus of this Special Issue is on the antimicrobial activity of natural extracts, paying attention to the methods and strategies aimed to potentiate their antimicrobial actions. These include:

  • Technologies by which plant-derived antimicrobials can be delivered (liposomes, nanoparticles, etc.)
  • Developing natural products as potential anti-biofilm agents
  • Plant Antimicrobial Peptides. (Laboratory and clinical studies showed that resistance to AMPs is less likely than resistance to conventional antibiotics. This is due to their membrane-targeting mechanisms of action. Indeed, compared to the common resistance strategies, which mainly target macromolecular synthesis (DNA, RNA, and protein), the mechanism of action of AMP is more efficient.)

Besides applications in human therapy, it would be interesting to include studies on their application in the food industry, such as the development of antimicrobial food-packaging systems. This is one possible aspect, but there may be alternative proposals. Manuscripts regarding other fields of application of substances extracted from plants are also welcome.

Dr. Floriana D'Angeli
Dr. Daria Nicolosi
Prof. Dr. Carlo Genovese
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. 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

  • plant extracts
  • drug delivery
  • biofilm inhibition
  • plant antimicrobial peptides
  • antimicrobial food packaging systems

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

25 pages, 7453 KiB  
Review
Advances in the Discovery of Efflux Pump Inhibitors as Novel Potentiators to Control Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens
by Song Zhang, Jun Wang and Juhee Ahn
Antibiotics 2023, 12(9), 1417; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12091417 - 07 Sep 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1689
Abstract
The excessive use of antibiotics has led to the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens in clinical settings and food-producing animals, posing significant challenges to clinical management and food control. Over the past few decades, the discovery of antimicrobials has slowed down, leading to [...] Read more.
The excessive use of antibiotics has led to the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens in clinical settings and food-producing animals, posing significant challenges to clinical management and food control. Over the past few decades, the discovery of antimicrobials has slowed down, leading to a lack of treatment options for clinical infectious diseases and foodborne illnesses. Given the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance and the limited availability of effective antibiotics, the discovery of novel antibiotic potentiators may prove useful for the treatment of bacterial infections. The application of antibiotics combined with antibiotic potentiators has demonstrated successful outcomes in bench-scale experiments and clinical settings. For instance, the use of efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs) in combination with antibiotics showed effective inhibition of MDR pathogens. Thus, this review aims to enable the possibility of using novel EPIs as potential adjuvants to effectively control MDR pathogens. Specifically, it provides a comprehensive summary of the advances in novel EPI discovery and the underlying mechanisms that restore antimicrobial activity. In addition, we also characterize plant-derived EPIs as novel potentiators. This review provides insights into current challenges and potential strategies for future advancements in fighting antibiotic resistance. Full article
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