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Review
. 2022 Sep;36(9):e24655.
doi: 10.1002/jcla.24655. Epub 2022 Aug 10.

Antibiotic resistance: The challenges and some emerging strategies for tackling a global menace

David Chinemerem Nwobodo  1   2 , Malachy Chigozie Ugwu  2 , Clement Oliseloke Anie  3 , Mushtak T S Al-Ouqaili  4 , Joseph Chinedu Ikem  2   5 , Uchenna Victor Chigozie  2 , Morteza Saki  6   7
Affiliations
Review

Antibiotic resistance: The challenges and some emerging strategies for tackling a global menace

David Chinemerem Nwobodo et al. J Clin Lab Anal. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Antibiotic resistance is currently the most serious global threat to the effective treatment of bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance has been established to adversely affect both clinical and therapeutic outcomes, with consequences ranging from treatment failures and the need for expensive and safer alternative drugs to the cost of higher rates of morbidity and mortality, longer hospitalization, and high-healthcare costs. The search for new antibiotics and other antimicrobials continues to be a pressing need in humanity's battle against bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance appears inevitable, and there is a continuous lack of interest in investing in new antibiotic research by pharmaceutical industries. This review summarized some new strategies for tackling antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

Methods: To provide an overview of the recent research, we look at some new strategies for preventing resistance and/or reviving bacteria's susceptibility to already existing antibiotics.

Results: Substantial pieces of evidence suggest that antimicrobials interact with host immunity, leading to potent indirect effects that improve antibacterial activities and may result in more swift and complete bactericidal effects. A new class of antibiotics referred to as immuno-antibiotics and the targeting of some biochemical resistance pathway components including inhibition of SOS response and hydrogen sulfide as biochemical underlying networks of bacteria can be considered as new emerging strategies to combat antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

Conclusion: This review highlighted and discussed immuno-antibiotics and inhibition of SOS response and hydrogen sulfide as biochemical underlying networks of bacteria as new weapons against antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

Keywords: SOS response; antibiotic resistance; hydrogen sulfide; immuno-antibiotics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors declared that they have no competing interests.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Immuno‐antibiotics inhibit the non‐mevalonate or methyl‐D‐erythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway of isoprenoid biosynthesis and riboflavin biosynthesis pathway in bacteria. This image was created with BioRender (https://biorender.com/)
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Bacterial SOS response: a schematic view. This image was created with BioRender (https://biorender.com/).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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MeSH terms