Search of New Natural Products with Antimicrobial Activity

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "The Global Need for Effective Antibiotics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 September 2021) | Viewed by 13913

Special Issue Editor

Departamento de Farmacia, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud,Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, Alfara del Patriarca, 46115 Valencia, Spain
Interests: antifungal; new antimicrobial natural products; development of new antibiotic/antifungal formulations
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues

The current spread of antimicrobial resistance represents a global healthcare challenge and threatens the capacity to effectively treat numerous infectious diseases. The low number of approved drugs in the last decades provoking the emptying of the pipeline of clinically used drugs is of the utmost relevance. Thus, tackling antibiotic resistance is a high priority endeavor for the World Health Organization that encourages the research and development of effective drugs for the treatment of these infections. In this regard, the WHO promotes the application of traditional medicine and encourages studies of indigenous knowledge. Ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacology research can be extremely useful to identify medicinal plant species with interesting pharmacological properties.

For decades, natural products have played a key role in drug development for antimicrobial treatments. There are a large number of clinically approved drugs based on natural products and synthetic analogs used for different diseases. Nevertheless, a huge number of plants have unknown active constituents, which can potentially show different pharmacological activities, including antibacterial.

It is well-known that the evolution of plants occurs over thousands of years, developing effective substances to protect themselves, and compete with other organisms. Among them, secondary metabolites or natural products are non-essential compounds, which play key roles for adaption to and protection against pathogens. Plants generate low quantities of them and show great structural diversity (alkaloids, phenolic derivatives, or terpenes).

Moreover, plants generate defensins, which are small and highly stable cysteine-rich peptides that constitute part of the innate immune system primarily directed against fungal and bacterial pathogens.

This Special Issue focuses on novel bioactive compounds showing antibacterial activity from the plant kingdom. It is our pleasure to invite you to contribute a manuscript to this Special Issue. Full research papers, short communications, and reviews are all welcome.

Dr. María Dea-Ayuela
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.

Keywords

  • Natural products
  • Defesins
  • essential oils
  • Ethnopharmacology
  • Plant extracts
  • Antibacterial activity
  • Antifungal activity

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (3 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

11 pages, 627 KiB  
Article
Biological Profiling of Semisynthetic C19-Functionalized Ferruginol and Sugiol Analogues
by Miguel A. González-Cardenete, Fatima Rivas, Rachel Basset, Marco Stadler, Steffen Hering, José M. Padrón, Ramón J. Zaragozá and María Auxiliadora Dea-Ayuela
Antibiotics 2021, 10(2), 184; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/antibiotics10020184 - 12 Feb 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2378
Abstract
The abietane-type diterpenoids are significant bioactive compounds exhibiting a varied range of pharmacological properties. In this study, the first synthesis and biological investigation of the new abietane-diterpenoid (+)-4-epi-liquiditerpenoid acid (8a) together with several of its analogs are reported. The compounds were generated from [...] Read more.
The abietane-type diterpenoids are significant bioactive compounds exhibiting a varied range of pharmacological properties. In this study, the first synthesis and biological investigation of the new abietane-diterpenoid (+)-4-epi-liquiditerpenoid acid (8a) together with several of its analogs are reported. The compounds were generated from the readily available methyl callitrisate (7), which was obtained from callitrisic acid present in Moroccan Sandarac resin. A biological evaluation was conducted to determine the effects of the different functional groups present in these molecules, providing basic structure–activity relationship (SAR) elements. In particular, the ferruginol and sugiol analogs compounds 1016 were characterized by the presence of a phenol moiety, higher oxidization states at C-7 (ketone), and the hydroxyl, methyl ester or free carboxylic acid at C19. The biological profiling of these compounds was investigated against a panel of six human solid tumor cell lines (HBL-100, A549, HeLa, T-47D, SW1573 and WiDr), four parasitic Leishmania species (L. donovani, L. infantum, L. guyanensis and L. amazonensis) and two malaria strains (3D7 and K1). Furthermore, the capacity of the compounds to modulate gamma-aminobutyric acid type A (GABAA) receptors (α1β2γ2s) is also described. A comparison of the biological results with those previously reported of the corresponding C18-functionalized analogs was conducted. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Search of New Natural Products with Antimicrobial Activity)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

19 pages, 2625 KiB  
Review
Alkaloids as Photosensitisers for the Inactivation of Bacteria
by Sònia López-Molina, Cristina Galiana-Roselló, Carolina Galiana, Ariadna Gil-Martínez, Stephane Bandeira and Jorge González-García
Antibiotics 2021, 10(12), 1505; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/antibiotics10121505 - 08 Dec 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2886
Abstract
Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy has emerged as a powerful approach to tackle microbial infections. Photodynamic therapy utilises a photosensitiser, light, and oxygen to generate singlet oxygen and/or reactive oxygen species in an irradiated tissue spot, which subsequently react with nearby biomolecules and destroy the [...] Read more.
Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy has emerged as a powerful approach to tackle microbial infections. Photodynamic therapy utilises a photosensitiser, light, and oxygen to generate singlet oxygen and/or reactive oxygen species in an irradiated tissue spot, which subsequently react with nearby biomolecules and destroy the cellular environment. Due to the possibility to irradiate in a very precise location, it can be used to eradicate bacteria, fungus, and parasites upon light activation of the photosensitiser. In this regard, natural products are low-cost molecules capable of being obtained in large quantities, and some of them can be used as photosensitisers. Alkaloids are the largest family among natural products and include molecules with a basic nature and aromatic rings. For this study, we collected the naturally occurring alkaloids used to treat microorganism infections using a photodynamic inactivation approach. We gathered their main photophysical properties (excitation/emission wavelengths, quantum yields, and oxygen quantum yield) which characterise the ability to efficiently photosensitise. In addition, we described the antibacterial activity of alkaloids upon irradiation and the mechanisms involved in the microorganism killing. This review will serve as a reference source to obtain the main information on alkaloids used in antimicrobial photodynamic therapy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Search of New Natural Products with Antimicrobial Activity)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

30 pages, 12866 KiB  
Review
Research Progress on Antibacterial Activities and Mechanisms of Natural Alkaloids: A Review
by Yumei Yan, Xing Li, Chunhong Zhang, Lijuan Lv, Bing Gao and Minhui Li
Antibiotics 2021, 10(3), 318; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/antibiotics10030318 - 19 Mar 2021
Cited by 73 | Viewed by 7771
Abstract
Alkaloids are nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds typically isolated from plants. They represent one of the most important types of natural products because of their large number and structural diversity and complexity. Based on their chemical core structures, alkaloids are classified as isoquinolines, quinolines, indoles, [...] Read more.
Alkaloids are nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds typically isolated from plants. They represent one of the most important types of natural products because of their large number and structural diversity and complexity. Based on their chemical core structures, alkaloids are classified as isoquinolines, quinolines, indoles, piperidine alkaloids, etc. In-depth analyses of alkaloids have revealed their antibacterial activities. To date, due to the widespread use of antibiotics, the problem of drug-resistant bacterial infections has been gradually increasing, which severely affects the clinical efficacy of antibacterial therapies and patient safety. Therefore, significant research efforts are focused on alkaloids because they represent a potentially new type of natural antibiotic with a wide antibacterial spectrum, rare adverse reactions, and a low tendency to produce drug resistance. Their main antibacterial mechanisms include inhibition of bacterial cell wall synthesis, change in cell membrane permeability, inhibition of bacterial metabolism, and inhibition of nucleic acid and protein synthesis. This article reviews recent reports about the chemical structures and the antibacterial activities and mechanisms of alkaloids. The purpose is to solve the problem of bacterial resistance and to provide a certain theoretical basis and research ideas for the development of new antibacterial drugs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Search of New Natural Products with Antimicrobial Activity)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop