Bacterial targets to antimicrobial leads and development candidates

The unabated spread of drug-resistant bacterial pathogens continues to pose a significant threat to patient health. However, there are now several new and improved derivatives from established classes of antibiotics that have recently been approved or are in late-stage development. In drug discovery, screening of new targets derived from genomic-based discovery stratagems has resulted in a number of potent antibacterial leads. Further optimization and development of these promising compounds offer the opportunity to develop new classes of antimicrobials that act through modes of action that are unlikely to be affected by resistance mechanisms defined to date. In addition, new discoveries in biochemical mechanisms of antibiotic action continue to help identify new approaches to design novel antibiotic analogs.