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Combating antimicrobial resistance: the silent war
Summary
This review examines the growing global crisis of antimicrobial resistance, where bacteria become immune to antibiotics due to overuse in medicine and agriculture. Although focused on drug resistance, the paper is relevant to microplastic research because microplastics have been shown to harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria and facilitate the transfer of resistance genes in the environment, potentially making this public health crisis worse.
Once hailed as miraculous solutions, antibiotics no longer hold that status. The excessive use of antibiotics across human healthcare, agriculture, and animal husbandry has given rise to a broad array of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens, posing formidable treatment challenges. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has evolved into a pressing global health crisis, linked to elevated mortality rates in the modern medical era. Additionally, the absence of effective antibiotics introduces substantial risks to medical and surgical procedures. The dwindling interest of pharmaceutical industries in developing new antibiotics against MDR pathogens has aggravated the scarcity issue, resulting in an exceedingly limited pipeline of new antibiotics. Given these circumstances, the imperative to devise novel strategies to combat perilous MDR pathogens has become paramount. Contemporary research has unveiled several promising avenues for addressing this challenge. The article provides a comprehensive overview of these innovative therapeutic approaches, highlighting their mechanisms of action, benefits, and drawbacks.
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