Next-generation precision antimicrobials: towards personalized treatment of infectious diseases
Name
nihms885220.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
1.05 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
de la Fuente Nunez, Cesar
Torres, Marcelo D. T.
Mojica, Francisco J. M.
Lu, Timothy K
Date Issued
June 2017
Journal
Current Opinion in Microbiology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation
" Next-generation precision antimicrobials: towards personalized treatment of infectious diseases." Current Opinion in Microbiology 37 (June 2017): 95-102 © 2017 Elsevier
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Antibiotics started to be used almost 90 years ago to eradicate life-threatening infections. The urgency of the problem required rapid, broad-spectrum elimination of infectious agents. Since their initial discovery, these antimicrobials have saved millions of lives. However, they are not exempt from side effects, which include the indiscriminate disruption of the beneficial microbiota. Recent technological advances have enabled the development of antimicrobials that can selectively target a gene, a cellular process, or a microbe of choice. These strategies bring us a step closer to developing personalized therapies that exclusively remove disease-causing infectious agents. Here, we advocate the preservation of our beneficial microbes and provide an overview of promising alternatives to broad-spectrum antimicrobials. Specifically, we emphasize nucleic acid and peptide-based systems as a foundation for next-generation alternatives to antibiotics that do not challenge our microbiota and may help to mitigate the spread of resistance.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/J.MIB.2017.05.014
