Microbial Genomics for New Antibiotics

Development of antibioics, in recent past has witnessed a shift from direct antimicrobial screening towards rational target based strategies. This shift is the result of availability of, massive data from genomics research involving whole-genome sequences study of expression profiles and proteomics . Microbial genomics has already facilitated the ability of the pharmaceutical industry in hunting for antimicrobial drugs particularly when the old drugs become ineffective due to following reasons:

(i) development of resistance in microbes against the antibiotic, sometimes involving multiple systems, which reduces the effect of an antibiotic; (ii) a new range of organisms becoming potential pathogens due to and due to longevity of patients; this is particularly true of immunocompromised patients, who can be infected even by non-pathogenic organisms. In view of this, target-based strategies are being used for developing antibodies. Advantages and disadvantages of target based screening for drug discovery are presented. An example of target identification for discovery of antibacterial drug. Once the target is identified, the methods described earlier in this chapter (target – oriented synthesis) can be used for drug development. The drug hunting process thus involves three stages, depicted