Monoclonal Antibodies Targeting Bacterial Infections: A Broad Review of the Field

The ever-increasing trend of antibiotic resistance necessitates new therapeutic strategies for fighting infection. Standing on decades of extensive research and development, monoclonal antibodies have great promise for treating antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. In this comprehensive review of the field, we summarize the rapidly emerging field of monoclonal therapeutics that offer alternative approaches to target bacterial pathogens that pose critical concern to human health. Organizing the findings by species and by molecular target, we discuss antibodies that have demonstrated therapeutic potential as well as those that did not provide efficacy, highlighting new insights for the design and discovery of highly effective therapeutics for the future. Furthermore, we discuss the latest advances in molecular biology that have revolutionized the implementation, efficacy, and utility of monoclonal antibodies as therapeutics, and that continues to drive what will be an exciting era for antibacterial monoclonal antibodies.