Microbial natural products: Exploiting microbes against drug-resistant bugs

Abstract

The unsystematic and incoherent usage of antibiotics has led to an exceptional challenge for mankind, due to the development of resistance in pathogens toward the available drugs by a phenomenon known as multidrug resistance (MDR). By year 2050, the drug-resistant infections across the globe are predicted to reach an alarming number of ten million deaths. The development of MDR in pathogens to the known drugs could be attributed to a number of factors, like target modification, efflux pump, inactivation of antibiotics, etc. Therefore, with the current rate of acquiring drug resistance, there is a need to investigate all the promising sources of antimicrobials. One among them is the microbial flora associated with soil, water, and plants producing multitude of antimicrobials like terpenes, coumarins, alkaloids, etc., which could have immense and diverse potential in this field. Different antimicrobials recognized so far are known as per their mode of action, like inhibiting the cell wall synthesis, interfering with the protein synthesis, synthesis of nucleic acids, cell membrane lysis, etc. The present chapter emphasizes on few antimicrobials produced by microorganisms with their mechanisms of action, thereby urging the need to study microbial flora extensively as an effective strategy to fight the resistance of deadly superbugs.