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Review
. 2015 Mar 24;20(4):5286-98.
doi: 10.3390/molecules20045286.

Antibiotic discovery: combatting bacterial resistance in cells and in biofilm communities

Anahit Penesyan  1 , Michael Gillings  2 , Ian T Paulsen  3
Affiliations
Review

Antibiotic discovery: combatting bacterial resistance in cells and in biofilm communities

Anahit Penesyan et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Bacterial resistance is a rapidly escalating threat to public health as our arsenal of effective antibiotics dwindles. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new antibiotics. Drug discovery has historically focused on bacteria growing in planktonic cultures. Many antibiotics were originally developed to target individual bacterial cells, being assessed in vitro against microorganisms in a planktonic mode of life. However, towards the end of the 20th century it became clear that many bacteria live as complex communities called biofilms in their natural habitat, and this includes habitats within a human host. The biofilm mode of life provides advantages to microorganisms, such as enhanced resistance towards environmental stresses, including antibiotic challenge. The community level resistance provided by biofilms is distinct from resistance mechanisms that operate at a cellular level, and cannot be overlooked in the development of novel strategies to combat infectious diseases. The review compares mechanisms of antibiotic resistance at cellular and community levels in the light of past and present antibiotic discovery efforts. Future perspectives on novel strategies for treatment of biofilm-related infectious diseases are explored.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Antibiotic resistance at the community (a) and cellular (b) levels.
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