Design and Synthesis of Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs) or Peptidomimetics with Broad Spectrum, Gram-Negative Selective or Gram-Positive Selective Activities

Dear Colleagues:

We cordially invite you to submit research articles, minireviews or short communications covering all aspects of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), including synthesis, structural characterization and biological studies. This special issue particularly wishes to highlight the importance and potential of AMPs as new therapeutics, with a special emphasis on research into the efficacy of AMPs against multidrug resistant pathogens. Clearly this latter is of critical importance considering the emergence of microbial pathogens towards even antibiotics of last resort, including colistin and polymyxin. AMPs of interest include amphipathic α-helical or cyclic β-sheet peptides, mixed α-helical and cyclic β-sheet peptides, disulfide-bridged peptides and peptides with no defined secondary structure. In order for AMPs to be useful as systemic therapeutics, they must have low hemolytic activity against human red blood cells, a barrier to their application as systemic therapeutics to date. Thus, all papers submitted should include activity against human red blood cells obtained under conditions of significant incubation times (1h – 18h). Overall, this special issue aims to provide an excellent international forum to report interdisciplinary findings leading to effective peptide therapeutics.

Prof. Robert Hodges
Dr. Colin Mant
Guest Editors

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. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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.

• Antimicrobial peptides
• Gram-negative selective activity
• Gram-positive selective activity
• Broad spectrum activity
• Hemolytic activity
• Antimicrobial activity
• Therapeutic indices
• Antiviral activity
• Antifungal activity