Development of New
Antimicrobial Agents
The pharmaceutical industry constantly faces the need of new antimicrobial
agents. Although
antimicrobial agents have been developed for the last 50 years, there is still great demand for the production of new antimicrobial agents. Various approaches like those of vaccine development and integrated biotechnological approaches need to be utilized to cater the increasing need of
developing new antimicrobial agents for a host of so many diseases.
One approach in development involves modification of the existing antimicrobial agents. Antimicrobial agents with broad spectrum of activity have always been developed and the approach here is to increase the spectrum of activity of these antimicrobial agents.
Another approach utilizes genome sequencing. Now that complete genome sequencing of the organisms is all possible so why not develop antimicrobial agents using this approach. With this approach various theories are considered for future drug development. The ability to produce vast numbers of potentially active compounds (utilizing combinatorial chemistry, together with the possibility of developing assays based on oligonucleotide arrays to screen the candidate, is an area of considerable interest. For example use of t-RNA synthetases and short chain peptides.
The last approach in development of new antimicrobial agents is vaccine. Vaccines deserve more attention, as they do not face the problem of antibiotic resistance. There are studies that are carried for development of vaccines against a range of diseases. The possibility of developing vaccines for diseases in which resistance is an increasing problem deserves more attention.
With these approaches for development of new antimicrobial agents, in future drugs will be developed accordingly to meet the demand of antimicrobial agents efficiently. More broad-spectrum compounds and the products of genomic research will take longer to develop. The concern expressed in the House of Lords report of a gap between need and availability may well be only too real in the coming decade.