Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, there is an urgent need to find and develop new compounds to fight life-threatening bacterial, fungal, and viral infections and to determine the ability of these pathogens to develop resistance to currently used treatment strategies. Currently, antibiotics are the main anti-infective strategy for patients in infectious, trauma, intensive care units. Unfortunately, their effectiveness is decreasing across the globe due to global emergence of multi-drug-resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens, turning bacterial infections into a serious concern.

The prevention of the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that is spreading in healthcare facilities is a huge infection control challenge because these infections remain a serious cause of healthcare-associated infections around the world. Although their prevalence among patients has decreased in many countries all over the world, this remains an important concern for healthcare professionals and scientists. Increased public awareness towards MRSA in the framework of various initiatives, events, еtc., may contribute to the search for new products of natural origin (plant, animal, microalgal, etc.) as candidates for anti-MRSA control and therapy. These include various essential oils, small antimicrobial peptides of animal origin, bacteriocines, and different plant compounds such as triterpenoids, alkaloids, phenols, flavonoids, etc., that have antimicrobial activity. Many studies have focused on the isolation, characterization, and improvement of their stability as well as the bioavailability, cellular uptake and internalization, pharmacokinetic profile, and reduction of the toxicity of the tested compounds. Attention has been focused on a number of nanocarriers, such as liposomes, microemulsion systems for drug delivery, nanocapsules, solid lipid nanoparticles, polymeric micelles, etc. Even if the majority of studies related to the evaluation of the biological activity are still in the in vitro or in silico stages, their internalization in nanocarriers represents the future of “green therapeutics”. 

To summarize, new compounds with well-defined activity and mechanisms against MDR pathogens, e.g., MRSA, need to be developed urgently. In this context, this Special Issue will focus on recent studies on the modern ways and future directions to search for the next generation safe and effective antimicrobial compounds, including those derived from phytochemicals, antimicrobial peptides, metalloantibiotics, efflux pump inhibitors, etc., to control the infections caused by emerging MDR pathogens.

Dr. Maya Zaharieva
Prof. Dr. Hristo Najdenski
Guest Editors

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• natural products
• MRSA
• antimicrobial mechanisms and strategies
• combination effects
• clinical applicability
• in silico, in vitro and in vivo models
• infection control