About this Research Topic

Background

Antimicrobial resistance is an urgent public health threat that causes the deaths of more than one million people per year worldwide. In the United States, almost 3 million antimicrobial infections occur every year with a death rate of 2.75%, along with additional medical expenses of over 20 billion dollars and productivity losses of about 35 billion dollars. Antimicrobial resistance has impacts not only in human healthcare, but also in the agricultural and veterinarian industries. Recent health system and policy analyses project that the annual GDP would decrease from 100 to 200 trillion dollars by 2050. Therefore, antibiotic resistance is an issue that greatly impacts global health and economy, making it a priority public health concern.

Antibiotic resistance by microorganisms developed soon after their introduction, with drug-resistant pathogenic bacterial strains firstly appearing in hospitals. In 1960, multiple drug-resistant strains were initially detected in enterobacteria and then appeared in other groups over the years. In 2006, the term "extensive drug resistance" (XDR) was coined to describe multidrug-resistant tuberculosis with additional resistance to other antibiotics. Soon after, several XDR isolates have been described in the literature for different bacterial species of clinical relevance. Bacteria can develop antibiotic resistance through several mechanisms, and our understanding of them is paramount to develop strategies to combat it.

Antibiotic resistance could be due to natural or acquired mechanisms which include decreased drug uptake, drug efflux, drug inactivation, chemical modification of the drug, drug destruction, and drug target modification. Antibiotics usually work against a few common targets where classes of antibiotics target the same processes, which is also part of the reason why antibiotic resistance leads to treatment failure since different antibiotics would act on the same pathways. In this Research Topic, we wish to receive manuscripts about antibiotic resistance mechanisms and strategies to combat them, particularly those aimed to describe drug development exploring novel targets and novel therapies.

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This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• ... View all formats

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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: antimicrobial resistance, antibiotic resistance, mechanisms, strategies, drug development, novel targets, novel therapies

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