- Course overview
- Search within this course
- What is antimicrobial resistance?
- How do we study pathogens?
- Public pathogen data
- A guide to the Pathogens Portal
- Analysing genomic data from pathogens
- Identification and investigation of antimicrobial resistance genes
- Looking for antimicrobial resistance genes in different environments
- Data sharing
- Crossword: Test your knowledge
- Your feedback
- Further resources
- Help and support
- Glossary
- References
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New solutions
Some of the new types of therapeutics currently under development include:
- Vaccines – Vaccines expose the body’s immune system to a weakened or inactivated version of a pathogen, which triggers a similar immunological response to a natural infection but without the disease. The next time the immune system encounters the pathogen it will recognise it and quickly clear it before it is able to cause disease, thus reducing the need for traditional antimicrobials [7].
- Phage therapy – Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that infect and kill bacteria, and can therefore be used to treat bacterial infections. Unlike traditional antibiotics phages are highly specific to their host bacteria, and are able to evolve alongside bacteria to overcome resistance [8].
- Antimicrobial peptides – Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are short positively charged proteins that are naturally occurring in many organisms, including humans, where they function as a defence mechanism against infections. Organisms that do not have an adaptive immune system, such as invertebrates, are promising sources for novel AMPs and are being actively investigated by researchers [9].