Photodynamic Therapy Against Antimicrobial Resistance: From Novel Photosensitizers to Anti‑infective Therapies

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the effectiveness of standard anti-infective drugs and calls for therapeutic concepts that can bypass, disable, or outpace microbial resistance mechanisms. Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), the use of light to activate molecules into cytotoxic or immunomodulatory species at the site of infection, offers a compelling, mechanism-driven approach to expand the anti-infective toolkit. By generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) or triggering photochemical reactions with spatial and temporal precision, pharmacological strategies as PDT can attack pathogens through multi-target damage pathways that are less prone to classical, single-target resistance.This Research Topic will showcase advances that connect photosensitizer design and photochemistry to pharmacological mechanisms, drug delivery, and translational anti-infective therapy. We welcome contributions on novel photosensitizers and photoactivated prodrugs with improved potency, selectivity, and safety, including structure–activity relationships, subcellular localization, and tunable activation wavelengths. Particular emphasis is placed on pharmacological insights: uptake and efflux, membrane interactions, metabolic stability, biodistribution, and mechanisms of microbial killing, tolerance, and resistance (including potential adaptive responses to oxidative stress and biofilm-associated protection).We encourage studies that integrate mechanistic and phenotypic screening to identify photodynamic hits against priority pathogens (bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses), including multidrug-resistant and biofilm-forming strains. Submissions exploring synergies with existing pharmacological interventions are especially welcome, such as combination regimens that resensitize microbes to antibiotics, disrupt virulence, or potentiate host defenses. Research on targeted delivery (nanocarriers, antibody or peptide conjugates, infection-responsive systems), light dosimetry, and clinically relevant illumination strategies (e.g., fibers, LEDs, wearable devices) is also within scope, provided the work advances anti-infective pharmacology.The Topic aims to bridge medicinal chemistry, microbiology, and pharmacology to accelerate anti-infective therapies that are controllable, localized, and effective against resistant infections. Topic editors: Carlos J. P. Monteiro, Youssef Mir, Bathini Nagendra Babu Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77069/photodynamic-therapy-against-antimicrobial-resistance-from-novel-photosensitizers-to-anti-infective-therapies