The post-antibiotic era: promising developments in the therapy of infectious diseases

An overview of investigational antibiotics highlights that antimicrobial drug development is slower than the emergence and spread of resistant strains. In the last three decades only two antibiotics belonging to truly new classes have been introduced into the market, i.e. linezolid and daptomycin. This situation is fostering a huge amount of research aimed at the development of novel molecules and novel antibacterial approaches. The present review details the state of the art research in the fields of antimicrobial peptides, antivirulence factors, bacteriophages, and antibodies as possible replacements or enhancers of classic antibiotics. If the number of new antibacterials in phase II or III of clinical trials remains disappointing, it seems nonetheless reasonable to expect major breakthroughs, made possible by the synergistic use of computational methods and chemical and biological research.