New trends in antimicrobial development.
So far, two strategies have been applied to develop new anti-infective agents: (a) the synthesis of analogs of classical antibiotics with enhanced activity against resistant pathogens and (b) the screening of naturally occurring substances and libraries of synthetic compounds for antimicrobial activity in whole-cell assays. Today, the same principles are being used; however, the search for antimicrobial compounds with novel modes of action is based on targeting specific resistance and virulence factors. Novel targets for anti-infective agents are currently being discovered as a consequence of a better understanding of cell biology, the molecular basis of bacterial resistance, the gene-pathogenicity relationship and the mechanism of the infection process.
Setti
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Axys Pharmaceuticals, Inc., South San Francisco, California 94080, USA.
Micetich
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D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000472:pathogenicity; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000187:drug effects; D015195:Drug Design; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011500:Protein Synthesis Inhibitors / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D011500:Protein Synthesis Inhibitors