Newer antibacterial drugs for a new century

Abstract

Importance of the field: Antibacterial drug discovery and development has slowed considerably in recent years, with novel classes discovered decades ago and regulatory approvals tougher to get. Traditional approaches and the newer genomic mining approaches have not yielded novel classes of antibacterial compounds. Instead, improved analogues of existing classes of antibacterial drugs have been developed by improving potency, minimizing resistance and alleviating toxicity.

Areas covered in this review: This article is a comprehensive review of newer classes of antibacterial drugs introduced or approved after year 2000.

What the reader will gain: It describes their mechanisms of action/resistance, improved analogues, spectrum of activity and clinical trials. It also discusses new compounds in development with novel mechanisms of action, as well as novel unexploited bacterial targets and strategies that may pave the way for combating drug resistance and emerging pathogens in the twenty-first century.

Take home message: The outlook of antibacterial drug discovery, though challenging, may not be insurmountable in the years ahead, with legislation on incentives and funding introduced for developing an antimicrobial discovery program and efforts to conserve antibacterial drug use.

Keywords::

• antibacterial
• drug discovery
• drug resistance

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the reviewers of this manuscript for useful suggestions. The authors acknowledge G Devasahayam for concept and as a major contributor to this article; she should be contacted by email at [email protected] regarding article content.

Notes

This box summarises key points contained in the article.