POTENTIAL ALTERNATIVES FOR RESOLVING BACTERIAL ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE

I. Sani*, R. A. Umar and S. W. Hassan

ABSTRACT

Antibiotics are chemical substances that are used to kill or prevent the growth of microorganisms. Antibiotic resistance among pathogenic organisms has become a major impediment in the treatment of many infectious diseases. Several mechanisms have evolved in bacteria which make them resistant to antibiotics, such as, enzymatic inactivation of the antibiotic, chemical modification of the antibiotic, render it inactive through physical removal from the cell, or modify target site so that it is not recognized by the antibiotic. The most common mode is enzymatic inactivation of the antibiotic. Multidrug-resistant bacteria which are often resistant to many, if not all of the existing antibiotics are becoming more common. Since the level of development of novel antibiotics has severely dropped, alternatives to these antibiotics must be considered in the treatment of bacterial infections. There are various approaches and many research efforts at different stages of development in order to find substitutes to the antibiotics. These include the use of bacteriophages, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), predatory bacteria, nanoparticles, vaccines, medicinal plants, among others. Therefore, this review focuses on the potentials of using these alternatives to resolve the antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

Keywords: Bacteria, Antibiotic, Antibacterial-resistance, Multi-drug resistance, Alternatives.