[Update on research and development of substances with antimicrobial potential]

Antibiotics have been considered miracle drugs since the widespread introduction of penicillin, an antimicrobial substance with the potential to save millions of lives. Unfortunately, their excessive use, especially in agriculture and health care, has resulted in the selection and spread of resistant bacterial strains. The accelerated occurrence of antimicrobial resistance is currently a serious global problem, regardless of the level of economic development of individual countries. For this reason, great pressure is placed on developing new substances with an antimicrobial effect or modifying existing antimicrobials. A rational antibiotic policy and antibiotic stewardship are applied to preserve the effectiveness of current antibiotics for as long as possible. The article aims to introduce the readers to some of the newly developed antimicrobial agents that have the potential for possible clinical use: lipophosphonoxins, recently developed antimicrobial agents acting on the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane; silver nanoparticles and their antimicrobial effect on multidrug-resistant bacteria, either in their pure form or in combination with antibiotics or photodynamically active substances; and some phytoextracts, substances of plant origin with proven antibacterial activity.