The Interplay between the Microbiome and Viral Infections
A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Virology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 February 2023) | Viewed by 2856
Special Issue Editor
Interests: viruses; virome; microbiome; phages; cancer; vaccines
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
There is mounting evidence that the host microbiota plays important roles in modulating susceptibility to pathogenic viral infections. A recent, highly relevant example is SARS-CoV-2. The severity of COVID-19 appears to correlate with the microbial composition in the respiratory and intestinal tracts (see Cyprian et al., Int J Infect Dis 2021, 105: 540-550). This suggests that it may be feasible to identify risk groups based on microbiota composition. Moreover, this finding opens up new possibilities for prophylactic or therapeutic intervention with microbiota-altering agents. Various other correlations between microbiota and viral infections have been identified, yet many questions remain unanswered or unaddressed. For example, it remains mostly unclear whether altered microbiota are causative, i.e., predisposing to a viral infection, if changes in microbiota result from infection, or both. Moreover, there is very little understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the modulation of susceptibility to viral infections. The roles of the indigenous virome (phages and eukaryotic viruses) have been poorly addressed, and in vivo studies that clearly demonstrate modulation of susceptibility to viral infections through microbiota composition are scarce. This Special Issue aims to shed some light on the complex interactions between microbiota and viral infections, which could help to identify risk groups, new biomarkers for disease susceptibility, and microbiota-targeting interventions. I look forward to exciting contributions.
Dr. Felix Broecker
Guest Editor
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.
Keywords
- microbiota
- microbiome
- virome
- phageome
- viruses
- viral infection
- viral disease
