Chapter 5 - New approaches to antimicrobial discovery: Current development and future prospects

Abstract

The increasing incidence of infectious diseases has led to a rise in the demand of antimicrobial agents. Owing to the abrupt environmental deterioration, changes in population dynamics, increased human-animal interaction, and abuse of antibiotics, there has been a rise in the cases of bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic diseases. These factors have further led to an increase in antimicrobial resistance and, hence, a decrease in the availability of safe and effective antimicrobial agents. There has been a void of nearly three decades in the discovery of any new antimicrobial. The drug discovery and development process involve the identification of the appropriate molecular target, development of an effective inhibitory agent, animal testing, and clinical trials. These steps are completed in 10–12years making the whole drug development process time-consuming, expensive, and laborious. The advent of Omics sciences has paved the way to make the antimicrobial drug development process quite efficient. The ease of whole genome sequencing, structural elucidation techniques, derivatization, high-throughput screening, and animal modeling can aid in finding efficient solutions to the growing problem of infectious diseases. The current chapter traces the historical development of techniques employed for the discovery of antimicrobials over the past years. The modern techniques and their limitations in order to ensure their employability for the drug development process have also been reviewed.