Dear Colleagues,

Metabolomics and lipidomics are scientific studies aiming to comprehensively characterize the metabolome/lipidome within cells, biofluids, tissues, or organisms. Mass spectrometry (MS), a powerful analytical tool, is frequently used to perform metabolomics/lipidomics studies that could provide the sensitive and reproducible detection of hundreds to thousands of metabolites/lipids. Within the context of system biology, metabolomics/lipidomics are strongly related to the study of biological phenotypes. Many thousands of metabolites/lipid species exist in cells, and they consist of biological metabolic networks via numerous metabolism pathways. These networks can also change in response to cellular environment alterations, such as the phenotype change during disease development. Measuring such alterations and understanding the pathways involved is crucial to fully understanding cellular metabolism and potential mechanisms of disease.

In most cases of infectious diseases, metabolic processes are intimately connected to the mechanisms of disease pathogenesis and the resulting pathology and pathophysiology. For example, viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that depend on the metabolic network of the host cell to provide the energy and macromolecule subunits necessary for their replication.

Lipidomics/metabolomics studies can uncover virus-utilized host signaling pathways and identify the functional enzymes, lipids, or metabolites in these host pathways, which are associated with the virus life cycle and affect virus fitness. During the last decade, many metabolomics and lipidomics studies on multiple pathogens including virus and bacteria have been performed, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This Special Issue is devoted to metabolomics/lipidomics studies in the context of infectious diseases. Covered topics will include (not exclusively) metabolomics/lipidomics of the host response upon pathogen infections (e.g., virus, bacteria, or fungi) such as lipid/metabolic profile characterization post infections, key host factor identification, antipathogenic lipids/metabolites discovery and validation, antipathogenic drug candidates (host enzyme inhibitor, natural product, active compounds) development, host–pathogen interactions, and potential mechanism upon pathogen infections.

Dr. Bingpeng Yan
Prof. Dr. Haitao Lyu
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. Metabolites 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.

• metabolomics
• lipidomics
• LC-MS
• pathogen–host interaction
• viral infection
• bacterial infection
• host factor/target