Host-Direct Immunotherapy and Antivirulence Therapy to Combat Microbial Infections
A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Drug Targeting and Design".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 October 2024 | Viewed by 389
Special Issue Editors
Interests: antimicrobial agents; antivirulence agents; immunomodulators; polymers; lectins; polysaccharides; infection models; wound healing; action mechanisms
Interests: bacterial pathogenesis and host response to the infections; testing drugs and assessing the pathogenicity; bacterial community interactions; microbiota analyses and co-infections; serology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Despite therapeutic advances, microbial infections continue among the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. The antimicrobial resistance phenomenon has become a global threat to public-health systems, declining the arsenal of drugs available to treat infections. This scenario encourages the exploration of new paradigms to develop new approaches to treat microbial infection, such as those based on the modulation of the host immune system and virulence inhibition.
Host-directed immunotherapy consists of an improvement in host defenses rather than targetting microbe viability or virulence. It acts by enhancing the production of antimicrobial mediators through immune cells and/or regulating the exacerbated inflammation induced by microorganisms, which may promote tissue injury and organ failure.
On the other hand, antivirulence compounds should impair the mechanisms involved in microbial adhesion, colonization, invasion, immune evasion and/or host damage. These compounds should not target microbial growth, inducing lower selective evolutionary pressure on microbial cells than conventional antibiotics.
Thus, this Special Issue aims to highlight the current research on immunomodulatory and antivirulence compounds for the treatment of different types of microbial infections. Manuscripts using in vivo models, including invertebrate organisms, are encouraged. Clinical trials are also welcome.
Prof. Dr. Luís Cláudio Nascimento da Silva
Prof. Dr. Karen Angeliki Krogfelt
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- inflammation
- virulence factors
- natural products
- synthetic compounds
- cytokines
