Novel targets for antibiotic drug design

The urgent need for new antibiotics has led to an explosion in the number and diversity of antibiotic drug targets under investigation. The majority of such targets are enzymes required for essential cellular functions. Often, such novel targets are completely unexploited for antibiotic therapy and therefore have the advantage of avoiding current resistance mechanisms. In general, the most advanced novel targets are drawn from processes where an existing antibacterial compound has validated that process for antibiotic therapy. This review describes a number of the more promising targets under development.