10th Anniversary of Antibiotics - Recent Advances in Antibiotic Biosynthesis

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosynthesis and Combinatorial Approaches in Antimicrobial Discovery".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 13123

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Antibiotics journal was founded in 2012. During the past ten years, Antibiotics has launched more than 100 Special Issues and published more than 1500 papers. The journal covers all aspects of antibiotic discovery, development, use and preservation. The year 2021 marks the 10th anniversary of Antibiotics. We are thus excited to celebrate the Antibiotics journal’s 10th anniversary with a Special Issue.

This Special Issue welcomes both research and review papers in the most recent and innovative developments of antibiotic biosynthesis. We hope that this Special Issue can collect groundbreaking contributions in this field. If your paper has a high scientific impact, you may be eligible for a discount of the processing charges.

Prof. Dr. Manuel Simões
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. Antibiotics 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 2900 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.

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 8580 KiB  
Article
Drug Repurposing Targeting Pseudomonas aeruginosa MvfR Using Docking, Virtual Screening, Molecular Dynamics, and Free-Energy Calculations
by Tatiana F. Vieira, Rita P. Magalhães, Manuel Simões and Sérgio F. Sousa
Antibiotics 2022, 11(2), 185; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/antibiotics11020185 - 31 Jan 2022
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3729
Abstract
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic Gram-negative bacterium responsible for acute and chronic infections in planktonic state or in biofilms. The sessile structures are known to confer physical stability, increase virulence, and work as a protective armor against antimicrobial compounds. P. aeruginosa can control [...] Read more.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic Gram-negative bacterium responsible for acute and chronic infections in planktonic state or in biofilms. The sessile structures are known to confer physical stability, increase virulence, and work as a protective armor against antimicrobial compounds. P. aeruginosa can control the expression of genes, population density, and biofilm formation through a process called quorum sensing (QS), a rather complex and hierarchical system of communication. A recent strategy to try and overcome bacterial resistance is to target QS proteins. In this study, a combined multi-level computational approach was applied to find possible inhibitors against P. aeruginosa QS regulator protein MvfR, also known as PqsR, using a database of approved FDA drugs, as a repurposing strategy. Fifteen compounds were identified as highly promising putative MvfR inhibitors. On those 15 MvfR ligand complexes, molecular dynamic simulations and MM/GBSA free-energy calculations were performed to confirm the docking predictions and elucidate on the mode of interaction. Ultimately, the five compounds that presented better binding free energies of association than the reference molecules (a known antagonist, M64 and a natural inducer, 2-nonyl-4-hydroxyquinoline) were highlighted as very promising MvfR inhibitors. Full article
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16 pages, 5328 KiB  
Article
Green and Chemical Silver Nanoparticles and Pomegranate Formulations to Heal Infected Wounds in Diabetic Rats
by Renan Aparecido Fernandes Scappaticci, Andresa Aparecida Berretta, Elina Cassia Torres, Andrei Felipe Moreira Buszinski, Gabriela Lopes Fernandes, Thaila Fernanda dos Reis, Francisco Nunes de Souza-Neto, Luiz Fernando Gorup, Emerson Rodrigues de Camargo and Debora Barros Barbosa
Antibiotics 2021, 10(11), 1343; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/antibiotics10111343 - 03 Nov 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3032
Abstract
Infected cutaneous ulcers from diabetic rats with Candida albicans and Streptococcus aureus were treated with spray formulations containing green silver nanoparticles (GS), chemical silver nanoparticles (CS), or pomegranate peel extract (PS). After wound development and infection, the treatments were performed twice per day [...] Read more.
Infected cutaneous ulcers from diabetic rats with Candida albicans and Streptococcus aureus were treated with spray formulations containing green silver nanoparticles (GS), chemical silver nanoparticles (CS), or pomegranate peel extract (PS). After wound development and infection, the treatments were performed twice per day for 14 days. The wound healing was analyzed on days 2, 7, and 14 through the determination of CFUs, inflammatory infiltrate, angiogenesis, fibroplasia, myeloperoxidase, and collagen determination. Expressive improvement in wound healing was noted using both silver nanoparticles for 7 days. All the treatments were superior to controls and promoted significant S. aureus reduction after 14 days. CS presented better anti-inflammatory results, and GS and CS the highest number of fibroblasts. Despite the techniques’ limitations, GS and CS demonstrated considerable potential for managing infected wounds, especially considering no early strategies prior to the drugs, such as the debridement of these wounds, were included. Full article
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15 pages, 8761 KiB  
Article
Investigating Ghanaian Allium Species for Anti-Infective and Resistance-Reversal Natural Product Leads to Mitigate Multidrug-Resistance in Tuberculosis
by Cynthia Amaning Danquah, Michael Tetteh, Isaac Kingsley Amponsah, Abraham Yeboah Mensah, Kwame Ohene Buabeng, Simon Gibbons and Sanjib Bhakta
Antibiotics 2021, 10(8), 902; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/antibiotics10080902 - 23 Jul 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2508
Abstract
The bulbs of Allium species are a known source of antibacterial phytochemicals. Anti-infective, efflux pump and biofilm inhibitory activities of bulb extracts of selected Ghanaian shallots Allium cepa var aggregatum were evaluated using the HT-SPOTi assay and other whole-cell phenotypic screening techniques to [...] Read more.
The bulbs of Allium species are a known source of antibacterial phytochemicals. Anti-infective, efflux pump and biofilm inhibitory activities of bulb extracts of selected Ghanaian shallots Allium cepa var aggregatum were evaluated using the HT-SPOTi assay and other whole-cell phenotypic screening techniques to determine their possible mechanisms of action. Ethanol and aqueous extracts of white A. cepa inhibited the growth of Mycobacterium smegmatis mc2 155 and Escherichia coli, respectively. The majority of the Allium extracts significantly (p < 0.05) exhibited efflux pump inhibitory activity against all the acid-fast, Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains used. Hexane and chloroform extract of the pink A. cepa and the aqueous extract of the white A. cepa significantly inhibited M. smegmatis biofilm formation. For Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the inhibition was observed at 250 µg/mL for the aqueous extract (~77.34%) and 125 µg/mL for the hexane extract (~76.51%). The results suggest that Ghanaian shallots could potentially be useful when further developed to tackle antimicrobial resistance, particularly in tuberculosis (TB). Full article
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18 pages, 4555 KiB  
Article
The Phosin PptA Plays a Negative Role in the Regulation of Antibiotic Production in Streptomyces lividans
by Noriyasu Shikura, Emmanuelle Darbon, Catherine Esnault, Ariane Deniset-Besseau, Delin Xu, Clara Lejeune, Eric Jacquet, Naima Nhiri, Laila Sago, David Cornu, Sebastiaan Werten, Cécile Martel and Marie-Joelle Virolle
Antibiotics 2021, 10(3), 325; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/antibiotics10030325 - 20 Mar 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2785
Abstract
In Streptomyces, antibiotic biosynthesis is triggered in phosphate limitation that is usually correlated with energetic stress. Polyphosphates constitute an important reservoir of phosphate and energy and a better understanding of their role in the regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis is of crucial importance. [...] Read more.
In Streptomyces, antibiotic biosynthesis is triggered in phosphate limitation that is usually correlated with energetic stress. Polyphosphates constitute an important reservoir of phosphate and energy and a better understanding of their role in the regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis is of crucial importance. We previously characterized a gene, SLI_4384/ppk, encoding a polyphosphate kinase, whose disruption greatly enhanced the weak antibiotic production of Streptomyces lividans. In the condition of energetic stress, Ppk utilizes polyP as phosphate and energy donor, to generate ATP from ADP. In this paper, we established that ppk is co-transcribed with its two downstream genes, SLI_4383, encoding a phosin called PptA possessing a CHAD domain constituting a polyphosphate binding module and SLI_4382 encoding a nudix hydrolase. The expression of the ppk/pptA/SLI_4382 operon was shown to be under the positive control of the two-component system PhoR/PhoP and thus mainly expressed in condition of phosphate limitation. However, pptA and SLI_4382 can also be transcribed alone from their own promoter. The deletion of pptA resulted into earlier and stronger actinorhodin production and lower lipid content than the disruption of ppk, whereas the deletion of SLI_4382 had no obvious phenotypical consequences. The disruption of ppk was shown to have a polar effect on the expression of pptA, suggesting that the phenotype of the ppk mutant might be linked, at least in part, to the weak expression of pptA in this strain. Interestingly, the expression of phoR/phoP and that of the genes of the pho regulon involved in phosphate supply or saving were strongly up-regulated in pptA and ppk mutants, revealing that both mutants suffer from phosphate stress. Considering the presence of a polyphosphate binding module in PptA, but absence of similarities between PptA and known exo-polyphosphatases, we proposed that PptA constitutes an accessory factor for exopolyphosphatases or general phosphatases involved in the degradation of polyphosphates into phosphate. Full article
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