Natural Products as Potential Therapeutics to Tackle Life-Threatening Infections: From Field to Market

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Background

Natural resources notably medicinal plants have been used for the prevention and treatments of various types of ailments since the very early stage of human civilization. Traditional medicines like Ayurvedic and/or Unani system, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), etc., are still popular for the treatment of some life-threatening diseases. Scientific investigation into such natural treasure led to the discovery of over 7,000 compounds as natural drugs or their derivatives which are in today’s clinical uses.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major concern of today’s healthcare system. Following the serendipitous discovery of the first antibiotic, Penicillin, by Alexander Fleming from a mould (Penicillium notatum), there have been successful research for the discovery of natural, semi-synthetic and synthetic antibiotics of which over hundreds of antibiotics are in clinical uses. However, the pathogenic organisms have developed resistances to existing antibiotics though various mechanisms over the years. Use of antibiotics to manage secondary infections during COVID-19 pandemic has made the situation even worse. If no action is taken to tackle antimicrobial resistance, it has been predicted that there will be more than 10M deaths per year by 2050. Therefore, to tackle the global issues of AMR, it is no doubt important to develop antibiotics because of the unavailability of new and safe antibiotics to respond to the demand of antibiotics to treat increased number of life-threatening infections.

This Research Topic aims to provide scientific updates on drug discovery from natural sources covering traditionally used medicinal plants, soil microbes, marine sediments and animals to fight against life-threatening infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria (e.g. MRSA, multi-drug resistant Clostridium difficile and E. coli). The overall goal is to highlight the recent advances in natural drug discovery with particular focus on antimicrobial resistance which will instigate natural product chemists with systematic research in this research field.

Original Research articles (both length and short research communications) and Review articles involving the field study, experimental design for bioactive secondary metabolites, or clinical pharmacology of herbal products highlighting their potential usefulness to manage life-threatening infections with particular focus on MRSA and multi-drug resistant bacteria will be considered for the present Research Topic.

Subtopics of interest should include, but are not limited to:
• Ethnopharmacology using a systematic study design.
• Bioassay directed isolation and identification of anti-infective secondary metabolites from medicinal plants, microbes, and marine organisms.
• Mode of actions of natural products as potential anti-infective agents.
• Anti-infective drug development from natural resources.
• Anti-infective clinical studies on herbal medicines.

Other themes that fit the purpose of the Research Topic can be proposed by authors. Medicinal plants and/or herbal extracts must be well-characterized in their compositions. Spectral data (1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy, Mass spectrometry, LC-MS, GC-MS) should be included as supplementary data for the characterization of new compounds.


Note to the authors:

Upon submission, authors will need to select the Section of the Journal they wish to submit to, and the studies need to adhere to the scope of the section as well as quality guidelines, if applicable. Please see below.
- Ethnopharmacology – Studies submitted must comply with the “Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology” (you can freely download the full version here) and fit in the scope of the section (see here).
- Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery – Studies submitted must fit in the scope of the section (see here).

All the submitted manuscripts will be peer-reviewed and, if accepted, articles will be published in the Journal Frontiers in Pharmacology.

Keywords: Ethnopharmacology, Secondary metabolites, Structure elucidations, Infections, Traditional Medicine, Natural Products, Antimicrobial resistance

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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