Biomaterials, Bioconjugated Materials, and Biomaterial Composites with Antimicrobial Properties

Dear Colleagues,

Considerable efforts have been made to develop new antimicrobial agents with high efficacy and low cytotoxicity. Antibiotics and antifungals are designed to eradicate pathogens that cause infections, but unfortunately, they also kill helpful pathogens that protect our body from infection. Antimicrobial resistance is accelerated owing to the over-prescription and extensive use of antibiotics in livestock. Antimicrobial-resistant pathogens learn to adapt, survive, and multiply, causing infections of the bloodstream, respiratory and urinary tracts, burns, wounds, and the nervous system. In the past, Staphylococcus aureus and Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections were usually controlled by penicillin but are now almost always resistant to benzylpenicillin. Bacteria present in the gastrointestinal tract also develop resistance to many antibiotics, especially vancomycin, a very complex antibiotic.

Natural compounds from plants, animals, and microorganisms exhibit antimicrobial properties with tolerable cytotoxicity to human cells. Approximately two-thirds of all naturally derived antibiotics currently have been used in human and veterinary medicine. Polymers with intrinsic antimicrobial properties include polylysine, chitosan/chitin, polyaniline, and polypyrrole. However, other polymers require the attachment or entrapment of an antimicrobial moiety. Notably, antibiotics often fare better in the presence of natural products. A typical example is the synergistic effect of curcumin and antibiotics, as curcumin binds to bacterial membranes and enzymes, enabling the penetration of antibiotics and/or their prevention from lysis and hydrolysis. Polymers also form polymer composites with metallic nanoparticles, such as silver, copper, zinc, titanium dioxide, etc., resulting in enhanced antimicrobial activities.

This Special Issue advocates the development of biomaterials, conjugated materials, and composite materials. The subject will cover the potential uses of polymers, copolymers, polymer composites with nanoparticles, polymer complexes, and natural products.  Natural products can stem from plants (e.g., terpenes, polyphenols with a low molecular weight, diferuloylmethane (curcumin), essential oils, etc.), animals (arenicins), a group of peptides, chitosan and its derivatives, seroin (low molecular weight proteins produced by Bombyx mori), and microorganisms (e.g., aminoglycosides). The topics of interest also include applications of functional biomaterials in medicine, health care, water treatment, and food packaging. The Special Issue also covers the potential use of nanocarriers to improve their pharmacokinetics and reduce toxicity owing to the controlled release of therapeutic agents at the target site. Of interest is the development of a new class of antimicrobial agents against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE), multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MDR-TB), carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE), and Acinetobacter baumanniin (carbapenem-resistant).

We encourage the submission of your most creative work that can advance antimicrobial activities on a varying scale. JFB looks forward to receiving your submissions and working with you.

Prof. Dr. John H.T. Luong
Guest Editor

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• antimicrobial
• antibiotics
• polymers
• polymer composites
• natural products
• biomaterials
• nanoparticles