The high incidence of intractable bacterial infections in the world, including not only developing countries but also industrial countries, and especially the increase in immunocompromised hosts and development of drug resistance around the world have prompted the quest for novel antimycobacterial drugs. However, the development of such antimicrobial chemotherapeutics is currently making slow progress even with the use of bioinformatics-based methodology for drug design, mainly due to the medical economics, i.e., the high costs for developing antibacterial drugs based on novel good drug targets, since almost all promising drug targets for new antibacterial agents have already been developed in these past forty years.

It thus appears that devising improved administration protocols for clinical treatment against intractable infections using existing chemotherapeutics is more practical than awaiting the development of new antibacterial drugs. The potentiation of host immune responses using immune-adjunctive agents, alternatively called host-directed therapeutics (HDTs), may increase the efficacy of therapeutic regimens against bacterial diseases. Particularly, the modulation of host immunity relating to antimicrobial functions of immunocompetent cells of hosts may be beneficial to immune-adjunctive therapy. The potentiation of host immune responses using HDTs is thought to increase the efficacy of antimicrobial regimens for patients with intractable bacterial infections and decrease the duration of chemotherapy. For instance, the modulation of host immunity relating to antimicrobial functions of phagocytic cells including neutrophils and macrophage, such as phagosomal maturation and the production of bactericidal effector molecules and proinflammatory cytokines, is thought to be beneficial for immune-adjunctive therapy using HDTs.

This Special Issue entitled “Clinical and Basic Studies on Therapeutic Efficacy of Medicinal Plants against Bacterial Infections” will deal with the current status and future prospects regarding the development of HDTs, particularly medicinal plants, including herbal medicines, useful for the clinical control of intractable bacterial infections.

Prof. Dr. Haruaki Tomioka
Dr. Yutaka Tatano
Guest Editors

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• host-directed therapeutics
• immune-adjunctive agents
• bacterial infections
• immunocompromised hosts
• antimicrobial chemotherapy
• herbal medicines
• medicinal plants
• Chinese traditional medicines