抗菌药物研究新方法

New approaches to the antimicrobial agents research

为了加快药物研发进程,解决日益严重的微生物耐药问题,众多新的技术方法被应用到抗菌药物研究领域:在发现药物靶点方面,比较基因组学研究方法和蛋白质组学研究方法得到广泛应用;在药物筛选方面,超微量抗生素,克服微生物耐药机制、抑制其毒力形成以及提高宿主免疫力等发挥辅助性作用的药物成为新的研究热点;同时抗菌药物的研究范围进一步扩大到噬菌体领域,能够直接杀伤病原微生物的噬菌体、噬菌体蛋白以及可以携带抗菌药物或致死性基因的噬菌体载体被成功用于治疗细菌性感染。本文综述了近年来在寻找新的药物靶点、探索新的筛选策略以及拓展新的研究领域方面所应用的一些新方法。

There are plenty of new technologies and methods that have been used in antimicrobial agents research recently to accelerate the progress of R＆D and solve the problem of microbial drug resistance. The methods once used in comparative genomics and proteomics are now widely used in discovering new antimicrobial targets. Researchers are also paying more attention on screening trace antibiotics, untraditional compounds which overcome the drug resistance, target the bacterial virulence or stimulate host defense system. Meanwhile, the use of bacteriophage in curing the bacterial infections has opened a new area. The phage （ itself or its protein） has been used as an antimicrobial agent or a vector of antibiotics and vital genes. This review summarized some of the new approaches methods used in finding novel drug targets, developing new strategies of screening and exploring new research fields.