Innovations in antimicrobial therapy

Innovaciones en la terapia antimicrobiana

Microbial resistance has led to the search for innovative alternatives to contain it. One of the most promising ones is the use of peptides, not only due to their intrinsically antimicrobial characteristics, but also due to the synergistic and antagonistic interactions they present with other immunological mediators.  These properties have enabled the creation of innate immune regulatory peptides, which  represent a new immunomodulatory approach to treat infections. However, despite multiple attempts tested, only the designed with a high antimicrobial score have demonstrated effectiveness in phase three clinical trials. Yet, given their exceptionally wide spectrum of activity, a single peptide can have activity against Gram-negative bacterial, Gram-positive bacterial, fungi and even viruses and parasites, increasing the interest in researching these dynamic molecules.

Furthermore, the CRISPR system enables the editing of bacterial genomes, which would make it posible to  reduce their  virulent activity and design antimicrobials based on programmable CRISPR-Cas 9 nucleases against specific targets. This system represent a promising path in the study of new alternatives with high potential to eliminate antibiotic resistance of highly pathogenic bacteria. Likewise, phage therapy, that is, the action of viruses that infect bacteria, used alone or in cocktails to increase their spectrum of action, taking advantage of their abundance in nature, given that it has been considered that each bacterium has a specific virus that it could be used as a potent antibacterial agent.

Finally, as long as conventional antimicrobial treatments continue to be used used as the main means of containment,  even when they are used correctly, the microevolution of bacteria will be itself sure to continue its own path.

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