Schyłek ery antybiotyków? Przykłady działań alternatywnych dla antybiotyków

The „golden age” of antibiotics seems to be coming to an end. The effect of uncontrolled distribution of chemotherapeutic agents in animal production is the commonly growing phenomenon of dramatic drug resistance in bacterial populations. At the end of the 20th century, the repeated failures to effectively control of bacterial infections have initiated the introduction of legislative procedures to limit the use of antibiotics, especially as feed additives in animals. The next step was the developing of alternative for antibiotics to control bacteria, with particular emphasis on natural substances as extracts and oils obtained from plants, which have been used against Gram – positive and Gram – negative bacteria, as well as Candida fungi. These are cationic peptides stabilized by cysteine (defensins and cathelicidins) – identified both in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Other examples are the nanoparticles, especially silver, gold or platinum. The use of bacteriophages as natural anti-bacterial agents, which bactericidal effect has been demonstrated in numerous experimental therapies in humans and animals, also deserves special emphasis. In this article scientific approaches to novel antibacterial therapies were presented and briefly discussed. As a consequence of the threat of widespread and global growth of multi-resistant bacteria there is a strong need to develop of alternative for antibiotics in elimination of multidrug resistant pathogens.