Title: Alternatives to Antibiotics: Current Trends and Future Perspectives
Abstract: The serendipitous discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century resulted in a major decline in infection related death rate, but soon after, overexploitation of antibiotics led to the development of antibiotic resistance in microbial populations. The emergence of multidrug resistance and extreme drug resistance in pathogens further intensified the whole situation. Around 100000-2000000 tons of antibiotics are being used in agriculture, horticulture, and medicine annually at a global level. The death rate due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria has risen far greater than the death rate due to HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. Modification of the site of action, efflux of antibiotics and degradation of drugs are the main mechanisms bacteria use as a defense strategy against antibiotics. Finding better drugs and methods to combat antibiotic resistance has become a need of the hour. This increase in antibiotic resistance has forced researchers to go back to the pre-antibiotic era in order to develop alternative drugs and processes to combat drug resistance. This review emphasizes the urgency of tackling this situation and deploy all promising alternatives of antibiotics like phage therapy, use of bacteriocins, organic acids, nanotechnology and CRISPR-Cas technique to address the antibiotic resistance challenge.
Publication Year: 2018
Publication Date: 2018-05-01
Language: en
Type: article
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