Antibacterial natural products from microbial and fungal sources: a decade of advances

Area of Science:

• Microbiology and Natural Product Chemistry
• Drug Discovery and Development
• Infectious Diseases and Antimicrobial Resistance

Background:

• Emerging infectious diseases and increasing antimicrobial resistance pose significant global public health threats.
• Existing antimicrobial drugs are becoming less effective due to widespread microbial resistance.
• The World Health Organization identifies antimicrobial resistance as a top public health challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the contributions of microorganism-derived natural products as antibacterial agents.
• To highlight novel compounds discovered and studied between 2010 and 2020.
• To underscore the potential of unexplored microbial biodiversity for new drug discovery.

Main Methods:

• Comprehensive literature review of studies published between 2010-2020.
• Analysis of natural products and semi-synthetic derivatives from microbial sources.
• Evaluation of reported antibacterial efficacy against various bacterial strains.

Main Results:

• The review encompasses over 140 microbial natural products and their semi-synthetic derivatives.
• Sixty-five of these compounds represent newly discovered natural products.
• All discussed compounds demonstrated promising efficacy against diverse bacterial strains.

Conclusions:

• Microorganisms remain a crucial and largely untapped resource for novel antibacterial drug discovery.
• Natural products and their derivatives from microbial sources offer structural diversity and potent bioactivity.
• Continued exploration of microbial biodiversity is essential to address the challenge of antimicrobial resistance.