International Journal of Microbiology

Antimicrobial Peptides as Therapeutic Agents


Publishing date
15 Feb 2012
Status
Published
Submission deadline
15 Aug 2011

Lead Editor
Guest Editors

1Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Medicine, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

2Teagasc Food Research Centre, Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland

3Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand


Antimicrobial Peptides as Therapeutic Agents

Description

It is now very clear that we are running out of time in the ongoing battle to find efficacious antimicrobial agents for treatment of bacterial infections. The recent emergence of enterobacteria producing the NDM-1 carbapenemase further highlights the now urgent need for development of novel antimicrobials. Some encouraging progress has been made in the field of antimicrobial peptide (AMP) antibiotics, some of which have potent activity against a wide range of clinically significant bacteria. Historically, AMPs have not been exploited in any meaningful way in the clinic because of perceived, and sometimes authenticated, problems with their production and stability and skepticism about the doses required to achieve therapeutic efficacy. However, recent advances in peptide engineering and recombinant expression technology are now increasingly making AMPs attractive targets for exploitation.As a consequence, a number of pharmaceutical companies are also now returning to natural product screening programs for the discovery of AMPs. Combined with data mining projects that are exploiting high-throughput sequencing technologies, we are now very well placed to start maximizing the potential of AMPs for clinical application.

In this special issue, we wish to collate selected research and review articles into a resource that communicates the potential impact that AMPs could have in therapy of bacterial infections. We are particularly interested in articles describing novel approaches that have been used in the discovery of AMPs from a range of natural sources. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Development of new software tools to enhance data-mining approaches for the identification of novel AMPs
  • Novel approaches to the recovery of AMPs using natural product screening programs
  • Application of bioengineering and recombinant technologies for the production of AMPs
  • Studies demonstrating the in vivo efficacy of AMPs
  • Delivery and formulation issues for AMPs

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijmb/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable:

International Journal of Microbiology
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Acceptance rate10%
Submission to final decision139 days
Acceptance to publication16 days
CiteScore6.500
Journal Citation Indicator0.570
Impact Factor3.4
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