Screening Strategies to Identify New Antibiotics

Mark      S. Butler; Matthew      A. Cooper

Abstract

The emergence of multi-drug resistant bacteria is one of the most critical medical problems currently facing humankind, which will only get worse if no new antibacterial drugs are launched. This article will first review commonly used screening strategies used to identify potential new antibiotics and then discuss novel screening methods. In addition, new assays, methods, biological targets and compounds with novel modes of action undergoing pre-clinical or clinical development are briefly discussed.

Keywords: Antibiotics, drug resistance, biofilm, virulence, efflux, synergy, antisense, fragment based drug design, screening, mutants