Technological Challenges in Antibiotic Discovery and Development


Book Description

Technological Challenges in Antibiotic Discovery and Development is the summary of a workshop convened by the Chemical Sciences Roundtable in September 2013 to explore the current state of antibiotic discovery and examine the technology available to facilitate development. Through formal presentations and panel discussions, participants from academia, industry, federal research agencies discussed the technical challenges present and the incentives and disincentives industry faces in antibiotic development, and identified novel approaches to antibiotic discovery. Antibiotic resistance is a serious and growing problem in modern medicine and it is emerging as a pre-eminent public health threat. Each year in the United States alone, at least two million acquire serious infections with bacteria that are resistant to one or more antibiotics, and at least 23,000 people die annually as a direct result of these antibiotic-resistant infections. In addition to the toll on human life, antibiotic-resistant infections add considerable and avoidable costs to the already overburdened U.S. health care system. This report explores the challenges in overcoming antibiotic resistance, screening for new antibiotics, and delivering them to the sites of infection in the body. The report also discusses a path forward to develop the next generation of potent antimicrobial compounds capable of once again tilting the battle against microbial pathogens in favor of humans. Technological Challenges in Antibiotic Discovery and Development gives a broad view of the landscape of antibiotic development and the technological challenges and barriers to be overcome.




Antibiotic Discovery and Development


Book Description

This volume covers all aspects of the antibiotic discovery and development process through Phase II/III. The contributors, a group of highly experienced individuals in both academics and industry, include chapters on the need for new antibiotic compounds, strategies for screening for new antibiotics, sources of novel synthetic and natural antibiotics, discovery phases of lead development and optimization, and candidate compound nominations into development. Beyond discovery , the handbook will cover all of the studies to prepare for IND submission: Phase I (safety and dose ranging), progression to Phase II (efficacy), and Phase III (capturing desired initial indications). This book walks the reader through all aspects of the process, which has never been done before in a single reference. With the rise of antibiotic resistance and the increasing view that a crisis may be looming in infectious diseases, there are strong signs of renewed emphasis in antibiotic research. The purpose of the handbook is to offer a detailed overview of all aspects of the problem posed by antibiotic discovery and development.




Treating Infectious Diseases in a Microbial World


Book Description

Humans coexist with millions of harmless microorganisms, but emerging diseases, resistance to antibiotics, and the threat of bioterrorism are forcing scientists to look for new ways to confront the microbes that do pose a danger. This report identifies innovative approaches to the development of antimicrobial drugs and vaccines based on a greater understanding of how the human immune system interacts with both good and bad microbes. The report concludes that the development of a single superdrug to fight all infectious agents is unrealistic.




Exploring the Frontiers of Innovation to Tackle Microbial Threats


Book Description

On December 4â€"5, 2019, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a 1.5-day public workshop titled Exploring the Frontiers of Innovation to Tackle Microbial Threats. The workshop participants examined major advances in scientific, technological, and social innovations against microbial threats. Such innovations include diagnostics, vaccines (both development and production), and antimicrobials, as well as nonpharmaceutical interventions and changes in surveillance. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.




Drug Discovery Targeting Drug-Resistant Bacteria


Book Description

Drug Discovery Targeting Drug-Resistant Bacteria explores the status and possible future of developments in fighting drug-resistant bacteria. The book covers the majority of microbial diseases and the drugs targeting them. In addition, it discusses the potential targeting strategies and innovative approaches to address drug resistance. It brings together academic and industrial experts working on discovering and developing drugs targeting drug-resistant (DR) bacterial pathogens. New drugs active against drug-resistant pathogens are discussed, along with new strategies being used to discover molecules acting via new modes of action. In addition, alternative therapies such as peptides and phages are included. Pharmaceutical scientists, microbiologists, medical professionals, pathologists, researchers in the field of drug discovery, infectious diseases and microbial drug discovery both in academia and in industrial settings will find this book helpful. Written by scientists with extensive industrial experience in drug discovery Provides a balanced view of the field, including its challenges and future directions Includes a special chapter on the identification and development of drugs against pathogens which exhibit the potential to be used as weapons of war




New Antibiotic Targets


Book Description

This book examines specific techniques which can be used to explore new drug targets and the effectiveness of new antibiotics. By testing new antimicrobial agents and modified existing drugs, the most vulnerable cell processes, such as cell wall and membrane synthesis, DNA replication, RNA transcription and protein synthesis, can be better exploited. This in-depth volume, however, delves even deeper by identifying additional novel cellular targets for these new therapies. The book will provide laboratory investigators with the vital tools they need to test the antimicrobial potential of products and to curb the rise of so many infectious diseases.




Antibiotics


Book Description

A chemocentric view of the molecular structures of antibiotics, their origins, actions, and major categories of resistance Antibiotics: Challenges, Mechanisms, Opportunities focuses on antibiotics as small organic molecules, from both natural and synthetic sources. Understanding the chemical scaffold and functional group structures of the major classes of clinically useful antibiotics is critical to understanding how antibiotics interact selectively with bacterial targets. This textbook details how classes of antibiotics interact with five known robust bacterial targets: cell wall assembly and maintenance, membrane integrity, protein synthesis, DNA and RNA information transfer, and the folate pathway to deoxythymidylate. It also addresses the universe of bacterial resistance, from the concept of the resistome to the three major mechanisms of resistance: antibiotic destruction, antibiotic active efflux, and alteration of antibiotic targets. Antibiotics also covers the biosynthetic machinery for the major classes of natural product antibiotics. Authors Christopher Walsh and Timothy Wencewicz provide compelling answers to these questions: What are antibiotics? Where do antibiotics come from? How do antibiotics work? Why do antibiotics stop working? How should our limited inventory of effective antibiotics be addressed? Antibiotics is a textbook for graduate courses in chemical biology, pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, and microbiology and biochemistry courses. It is also a valuable reference for microbiologists, biological and natural product chemists, pharmacologists, and research and development scientists.




Nanostructures for Antimicrobial Therapy


Book Description

Nanostructures for Antimicrobial Therapy discusses the pros and cons of the use of nanostructured materials in the prevention and eradication of infections, highlighting the efficient microbicidal effect of nanoparticles against antibiotic-resistant pathogens and biofilms. Conventional antibiotics are becoming ineffective towards microorganisms due to their widespread and often inappropriate use. As a result, the development of antibiotic resistance in microorganisms is increasingly being reported. New approaches are needed to confront the rising issues related to infectious diseases. The merging of biomaterials, such as chitosan, carrageenan, gelatin, poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) with nanotechnology provides a promising platform for antimicrobial therapy as it provides a controlled way to target cells and induce the desired response without the adverse effects common to many traditional treatments. Nanoparticles represent one of the most promising therapeutic treatments to the problem caused by infectious micro-organisms resistant to traditional therapies. This volume discusses this promise in detail, and also discusses what challenges the greater use of nanoparticles might pose to medical professionals. The unique physiochemical properties of nanoparticles, combined with their growth inhibitory capacity against microbes has led to the upsurge in the research on nanoparticles as antimicrobials. The importance of bactericidal nanobiomaterials study will likely increase as development of resistant strains of bacteria against most potent antibiotics continues. Shows how nanoantibiotics can be used to more effectively treat disease Discusses the advantages and issues of a variety of different nanoantibiotics, enabling medics to select which best meets their needs Provides a cogent summary of recent developments in this field, allowing readers to quickly familiarize themselves with this topic area




Mechanisms of antibiotic resistance


Book Description

Antibiotics represent one of the most successful forms of therapy in medicine. But the efficiency of antibiotics is compromised by the growing number of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Antibiotic resistance, which is implicated in elevated morbidity and mortality rates as well as in the increased treatment costs, is considered to be one of the major global public health threats (www.who.int/drugresistance/en/) and the magnitude of the problem recently prompted a number of international and national bodies to take actions to protect the public (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/docs/road-map-amr_en.pdf: http://www.who.int/drugresistance/amr_global_action_plan/en/; http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/carb_national_strategy.pdf). Understanding the mechanisms by which bacteria successfully defend themselves against the antibiotic assault represent the main theme of this eBook published as a Research Topic in Frontiers in Microbiology, section of Antimicrobials, Resistance, and Chemotherapy. The articles in the eBook update the reader on various aspects and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. A better understanding of these mechanisms should facilitate the development of means to potentiate the efficacy and increase the lifespan of antibiotics while minimizing the emergence of antibiotic resistance among pathogens.




Ethics and Drug Resistance: Collective Responsibility for Global Public Health


Book Description

This Open Access volume provides in-depth analysis of the wide range of ethical issues associated with drug-resistant infectious diseases. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is widely recognized to be one of the greatest threats to global public health in coming decades; and it has thus become a major topic of discussion among leading bioethicists and scholars from related disciplines including economics, epidemiology, law, and political theory. Topics covered in this volume include responsible use of antimicrobials; control of multi-resistant hospital-acquired infections; privacy and data collection; antibiotic use in childhood and at the end of life; agricultural and veterinary sources of resistance; resistant HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria; mandatory treatment; and trade-offs between current and future generations. As the first book focused on ethical issues associated with drug resistance, it makes a timely contribution to debates regarding practice and policy that are of crucial importance to global public health in the 21st century.