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Antibacterial Drug Discovery to Combat MDR pp 427–440Cite as

Combination of Drugs: An Effective Approach for Enhancing the Efficacy of Antibiotics to Combat Drug Resistance

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Abstract

Currently available antibiotics have been effective in treating infectious diseases; however, the development of resistance to these drugs has led to the emergence of new and the re-emergence of old, infectious diseases. Therefore, newer antibiotic approaches with mechanistic differences are needed to combat antimicrobial resistance. Combining antibiotics is an encouraging strategy for increasing treatment efficacy and for controlling resistance evolution. This approach may include the combination of one antibiotic with another antibiotic and the development of adjuvants that either directly target resistance mechanisms, like inhibition of β-lactamase enzymes, or indirectly target resistance by interrupting the bacterial signaling pathways, such as two-component systems. Other natural products, like essential oils, plant extracts, and nanoparticles, can also be combined synergistically with antibiotics. The aim of this chapter is to highlight the strategy of treating infections with arrays of drugs rather than discrete drugs. We have addressed here three categories of approaches being used in combination therapy: the inhibition of targets in different pathways, the inhibition of distinct nodes in the same pathway, and the inhibition of the same target in different ways. Here, we have described the most recent developments toward combination therapies for the treatment of infectious diseases caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria.

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Acknowledgement

We acknowledge the Department of Scientific Research, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia, for financial support in completing this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Basic Sciences, Biology Unit, Health Track, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Mohd Sajjad Ahmad Khan

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  1. Mohd Sajjad Ahmad Khan
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Agricultural Microbiology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Iqbal Ahmad

  2. Institute of Ophthalmology, JN Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Shamim Ahmad

  3. School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Kendra P. Rumbaugh

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Khan, M.S.A. (2019). Combination of Drugs: An Effective Approach for Enhancing the Efficacy of Antibiotics to Combat Drug Resistance. In: Ahmad, I., Ahmad, S., Rumbaugh, K. (eds) Antibacterial Drug Discovery to Combat MDR. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9871-1_19

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