About this Research Topic
Biologics: Bacteriophage-based therapy is being revived since it reduces the need for broad-spectrum antibiotics owing to the phages’ narrow host-spectrum.
There is also increased interest in the use of antimicrobial peptides, including synthesised and natural peptides based on host defence peptides, especially against multidrug-resistant strains. Recombinant phage-derived lysins have been linked with antimicrobial peptides to make “artilysins” targeting Helicobacter pylori.
Whereas recombinant antibodies targeting major bacterial pathogens have also been made, antibodies covalently attached to existing antibiotics represent another novel strategy. A recent newcomer into the biologics landscape is CRISPR-based gene editing, which still faces delivery challenges but succeeded in differentially targeting antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the presence of antibiotic-sensitive strains.
Chemical modulators: Small organic molecules, both synthetic and natural, have emerged as promising candidates for limiting the spread of AMR in the environment and potentiating the activity/improving the delivery of existing antibiotics.
AMR transmission may be blocked by preventing the plasmid-based horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of resistance genes using bacterial conjugation inhibitors (COINs). Linking photoactivable spacers to antibiotics keeps them in an inactive state until
needed, when irradiation at specific wavelengths triggers cleavage releasing the antibiotic. Attaching siderophores to antibiotics allows their uptake into bacterial cells bypassing well-known resistance mechanisms.
Newer modulators based on chemical gene-regulating peptide mimics are still at an early stage but have the potential to produce on-demand gene-targeted antimicrobials if delivery issues are addressed.
Microbiome manipulation: This explosion of research into the human microbiome has impacted the antimicrobial field as well, particularly leading to the realisation that the gut microbiome composition could prevent infections via mechanisms such as colonisation resistance, the modulation of immune factors and host defence peptides.
The gut microbiome can be manipulated beneficially by prebiotics(small molecules, natural oligomers/polymers), probiotics (live microbes) and small molecule stimulants of colonisation resistance. Some interesting potential probiotics include strains which produce endogenous narrow-spectrum antibiotics against major pathogens like Clostridioides difficile and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Beyond the human body, microbiome research extends to the indoor environment, to try and prevent infectious disease by favouring beneficial microbes in contrast to mainly Gram-negative pathogens, leading to microbial-based cleaning products (MBCPs) which are used to provide a “probiotic” human living space.
By exploring alternative strategies to conventional antibiotics, this collection aims to showcase advancements in the field that can significantly alleviate the upcoming crisis of antibiotic resistance.
This Research Topic welcomes submissions of the following article types: Original Research Articles, Brief Research Reports, Case Reports, Reviews, Mini-reviews, Methods, and General Commentary.
Keywords: Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), Antibiotic Development, Chemical Modulators of Antibiotics, Microbiome Manipulation, Innovative Antibiotic Strategies
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