Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:43:40.522Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Antibiotic adjuvants: multicomponent anti-infective strategies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2011

Lindsay Kalan
Affiliation:
Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, M.G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Gerard D. Wright*
Affiliation:
Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, M.G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University Hamilton, ON, Canada.
*
*Corresponding author: Gerard D. Wright, Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, M.G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University Hamilton, ON, Canada L8N 3Z5. E-mail: wrightge@mcmaster.ca

Abstract

The unremitting emergence of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens highlights a matching need for new therapeutic options. For example, new carbapenemases such as KPC (class A Klebsiella pneumoniae) and NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase 1) are surfacing, resulting in almost total resistance to β-lactam antibiotics. Furthermore, resistance is quickly disseminated, not only in the healthcare sector, but also within the community at large, because many resistance determinants are carried on mobile genetic elements readily shared among pathogens. The absence of new antibiotics has led to a growing reliance on older, more toxic drugs such as colistin, but resistance to these is already arising. One approach to combat this growing problem is the use of combination drug antibiotic adjuvant therapy, which potentiates the activity of antibiotics. Here, we review the current situation and discuss potential drug combinations that may increase the potency of antibiotics in the future. Adjuvant therapies include antibiotic combinations, synergy between antibiotics and nonantibiotics, inhibition of resistance and molecules that alter the physiology of antibiotic-insensitive cells, such as those in biofilms. We provide a rationale for these multicomponent strategies, highlighting current research and important considerations for their clinical use and pharmacological properties.

Type
Review Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

1Livermore, D.M. (2009) Has the era of untreatable infections arived? Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 64 (Suppl 1), i29-i36CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2Boucher, H.W. et al. (2009) Bad bugs, no drugs: no ESKAPE! An update from the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Clinical Infectious Diseases 48, 1-12CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3Arias, C.A. and Murray, B.E. (2009) Antibiotic-resistant bugs in the 21st century – a clinical super-challenge. New England Journal of Medicine 360, 439-443Google Scholar
4Spellberg, B. et al. (2008) The epidemic of antibiotic-resistant infections: a call to action for the medical community from the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Clinical Infectious Diseases 46, 155-164CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5Peleg, A.Y., Seifert, H. and Paterson, D.L. (2008) Acinetobacter baumannii: emergence of a successful pathogen. Clinical Microbiology Reviews 21, 538-582Google Scholar
6Zhang, Y. and Yew, W.W. (2009) Mechanisms of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 13, 1320-1330Google ScholarPubMed
7Workowski, K.A., Berman, S.M. and Douglas, J.M. Jr (2008) Emerging antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae: urgent need to strengthen prevention strategies. Annals of Internal Medicine 148, 606-613CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8Bratu, S. et al. (2005) Emergence of KPC-possessing Klebsiella pneumoniae in Brooklyn, New York: epidemiology and recommendations for detection. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 49, 3018-3020CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9Kumarasamy, K.K. et al. (2010) Emergence of a new antibiotic resistance mechanism in India, Pakistan, and the UK: a molecular, biological, and epidemiological study. Lancet Infectious Diseases 10, 597-602CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10Peleg, A.Y. and Hooper, D.C. (2010) Hospital-acquired infections due to gram-negative bacteria. New England Journal of Medicine 362, 1804-1813Google Scholar
11Giamarellou, H. and Poulakou, G. (2009) Multidrug-resistant Gram-negative infections: what are the treatment options? Drugs 69, 1879-1901Google Scholar
12Fischbach, M.A. and Walsh, C.T. (2009) Antibiotics for emerging pathogens. Science 325, 1089-1093CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
13Fournier, P.E. et al. (2006) Comparative genomics of multidrug resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii. PLoS Genetics 2, e7CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
14Canton, R. (2009) Antibiotic resistance genes from the environment: a perspective through newly identified antibiotic resistance mechanisms in the clinical setting. Clinical Microbiology and Infection 15 (Suppl 1), 20-25CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15Wright, G.D. (2010) Antibiotic resistance in the environment: a link to the clinic? Current Opinion in Microbiology 13, 589-594CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
16Payne, D.J. et al. (2007) Drugs for bad bugs: confronting the challenges of antibacterial discovery. Nature Reviews. Drug Discovery 6, 29-40CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
17Hamad, B. (2010) The antibiotics market. Nature Reviews. Drug Discovery 9, 675-676CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
18Shafer, R.W. and Vuitton, D.A. (1999) Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for the treatment of infection with human immunodeficiency virus type 1. Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy 53, 73-86Google Scholar
19Pillai, S.K., Moellering, R.C. and Eliopoulos, G.M. (2005) Antimicrobial combinations (5th edn) (Lorian, V., series ed.), Williams and Wilkins, BaltimoreGoogle Scholar
20Pillai, S., Moellering, R.C. and Eliopoulos, G.M. (2005) Antimicrobial combinations. In Antibiotics in Laboratory Medicine (5th edn) Lorian, V., ed.), Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, PhiladelphiaGoogle Scholar
21Holm, S.E. (1986) Interaction between beta-lactam and other antibiotics. Reviews of Infectious Diseases 8 (Suppl 3), S305-S314Google Scholar
22Reeves, D.S. (1971) Sulphamethoxazole-trimethoprim: the first two years. Journal of Clinical Pathology 24, 430-437Google Scholar
23GSK (2008) PR SEPTRA injection product monograph. [www.gsk.ca/english/docs-pdf/Septra_PM_20081127_EN.pdf]Google Scholar
24Burchall, J.J. and Hitchings, G.H. (1965) Inhibitor binding analysis of dihydrofolate reductases from various species. Molecular Pharmacology 1, 126-136Google ScholarPubMed
25Li, R., Hansch, C. and Kaufman, B.T. (1982) A comparison of the inhibitory action of 5-(substituted-benzyl)-2,4-diaminopyrimidines on dihydrofolate reductase from chicken liver with that from bovine liver. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 25, 435-440Google Scholar
26Kwon, Y.K. et al. (2008) A domino effect in antifolate drug action in Escherichia coli. Nature Chemical Biology 4, 602-608CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
27Moellering, R.C. Jr and Weinberg, A.N. (1971) Studies on antibiotic syngerism against enterococci. II. Effect of various antibiotics on the uptake of 14C-labeled streptomycin by enterococci. Journal of Clinical Investigation 50, 2580-2584CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28Moellering, R.C. JrWennersten, C. and Weinberg, A.N. (1971) Studies on antibiotic synergism against enterococci. I. Bacteriologic studies. Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine 77, 821-828Google ScholarPubMed
29Barnes, A.I., Herrero, I.L. and Albesa, I. (2005) New aspect of the synergistic antibacterial action of ampicillin and gentamicin. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents 26, 146-151Google Scholar
30Chanbusarakum, P. and Murray, P.R. (1978) Analysis of the interactions between piperacillin, ticarcillin, or carbenicillin and aminoglycoside antibiotics. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 14, 505-506Google Scholar
31Moellering, R.C. JrEliopoulos, G.M. and Allan, J.D. (1986) Beta-lactam/aminoglycoside combinations: interactions and their mechanisms. American Journal of Medicine 80, 30-34Google ScholarPubMed
32Russell, E.J. and Sutherland, R. (1975) Activity of amoxycillin against enterococci and synergism with aminoglycoside antibiotics. Journal of Medical Microbiology 8, 1-10CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
33Noone, P. and Pattison, J.R. (1971) Therapeutic implications of interaction of gentamicin and penicillins. Lancet 2, 575-578Google Scholar
34Waitz, J.A. et al. (1972) Biological aspects of the interaction between gentamicin and carbenicillin. Journal of Antibiotics 25, 219-225CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
35Chan, D.I. and Vogel, H.J. (2010) Current understanding of fatty acid biosynthesis and the acyl carrier protein. Biochemical Journal 430, 1-19CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
36Campbell, E.A. et al. (2001) Structural mechanism for rifampicin inhibition of bacterial rna polymerase. Cell 104, 901-912CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
37Cegielski, J.P. (2010) Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis: “there must be some kind of way out of here”. Clinical Infectious Diseases 50 (Suppl 3), S195-200Google Scholar
38Shah, N.S. et al. (2007) Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis – United States, 1993–2006. MMWR, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 56, 250-253Google Scholar
39Hugonnet, J.E. et al. (2009) Meropenem-clavulanate is effective against extensively drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Science 323, 1215-1218Google Scholar
40Bugg, T.D.H. et al. (1991) Molecular basis for vancomycin resistance in Enterococcus faecium BM4147: biosynthesis of a depsipeptide peptidoglycan precursor by vancomycin resistance proteins VanH and VanA. Biochemistry 30, 10408-10415CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
41Perichon, B. and Courvalin, P. (2006) Synergism between beta-lactams and glycopeptides against VanA-type methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and heterologous expression of the vanA operon. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 50, 3622-3630CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
42Kobayashi, Y. (2005) Study of the synergism between carbapenems and vancomycin or teicoplanin against MRSA, focusing on S-4661, a carbapenem newly developed in Japan. Journal of Infection and Chemotherapy 11, 259-261Google Scholar
43De Pascale, G. and Wright, G.D. (2010) Antibiotic resistance by enzyme inactivation: from mechanisms to solutions. Chembiochem 11, 1325-1334CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
44Brown, A.G. et al. (1976) Naturally-occurring beta-lactamase inhibitors with antibacterial activity. Journal of Antibiotics 29, 668-669CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
45Fisher, J.F., Meroueh, S.O. and Mobashery, S. (2005) Bacterial resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics: compelling opportunism, compelling opportunity. Chemical Reviews 105, 395-424CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
46Drawz, S.M. and Bonomo, R.A. (2010) Three decades of beta-lactamase inhibitors. Clinical Microbiology Reviews 23, 160-201CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
47Boehr, D.D. et al. (2003) Broad-spectrum peptide inhibitors of aminoglycoside antibiotic resistance enzymes. Chemistry and Biology 10, 189-196CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
48Daigle, D.M., McKay, G.A. and Wright, G.D. (1997) Inhibition of aminoglycoside antibiotic resistance enzymes by protein kinase inhibitors. Journal of Biological Chemistry 272, 24755-24758Google Scholar
49Allen, N.E. et al. (1982) 7-Hydroxytropolone: an inhibitor of aminoglycoside-2″-O-adenylyltransferase. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 22, 824-831Google Scholar
50Clancy, J. et al. (1995) Assays to detect and characterize synthetic agents that inhibit the ErmC methyltransferase. Journal of Antibiotics 48, 1273-1279Google Scholar
51Feder, M. et al. (2008) Virtual screening and experimental verification to identify potential inhibitors of the ErmC methyltransferase responsible for bacterial resistance against macrolide antibiotics. ChemMedChem 3, 316-322CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
52Hajduk, P.J. et al. (1999) Novel inhibitors of Erm methyltransferases from NMR and parallel synthesis. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 42, 3852-3859CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
53D'Costa, V.M. et al. (2006) Sampling the antibiotic resistome. Science 311, 374-377Google Scholar
54Li, J. et al. (2006) Colistin: the re-emerging antibiotic for multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections. Lancet Infectious Diseases 6, 589-601CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
55Lee, J.H. et al. (2009) New disturbing trend in antimicrobial resistance of gram-negative pathogens. PLoS Pathogens 5, e1000221Google Scholar
56Aoki, N. et al. (2009) Efficacy of colistin combination therapy in a mouse model of pneumonia caused by multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 63, 534-542Google Scholar
57Gordon, N.C., Png, K. and Wareham, D.W. (2010) Potent synergy and sustained bactericidal activity of a vancomycin/colistin combination versus multi-drug resistant strains of Acinetobacter baumannii. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 54, 5316-22CrossRefGoogle Scholar
58Moffatt, J.H. et al. (2010) Colistin resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii is mediated by complete loss of lipopolysaccharide. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 54, 4971-7CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
59Velkov, T. et al. (2010) Structure – activity relationships of polymyxin antibiotics. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 53, 1898-1916Google Scholar
60De Leon, G.P. et al. (2006) An in vitro screen of bacterial lipopolysaccharide biosynthetic enzymes identifies an inhibitor of ADP-heptose biosynthesis. Chemistry and Biology 13, 437-441Google Scholar
61Desroy, N. et al. (2009) Towards Gram-negative antivirulence drugs: new inhibitors of HldE kinase. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry 17, 1276-1289CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
62Poole, K. et al. (1993) Multiple antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa: evidence for involvement of an efflux operon. Journal of Bacteriology 175, 7363-7372Google Scholar
63Poole, K. and Srikumar, R. (2001) Multidrug efflux in Pseudomonas aeruginosa: components, mechanisms and clinical significance. Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry 1, 59-71Google Scholar
64Piddock, L.J. (2006) Multidrug-resistance efflux pumps – not just for resistance. Nature Reviews. Microbiology 4, 629-636Google Scholar
65Pages, J.M. and Amaral, L. (2009) Mechanisms of drug efflux and strategies to combat them: challenging the efflux pump of Gram-negative bacteria. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1794, 826-833Google Scholar
66Pages, J.M., Masi, M. and Barbe, J. (2005) Inhibitors of efflux pumps in Gram-negative bacteria. Trends in Molecular Medicine 11, 382-389CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
67Markham, P.N. et al. (1999) Multiple novel inhibitors of the NorA multidrug transporter of Staphylococcus aureus. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 43, 2404-2408CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
68Neyfakh, A.A., Borsch, C.M. and Kaatz, G.W. (1993) Fluoroquinolone resistance protein NorA of Staphylococcus aureus is a multidrug efflux transporter. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 37, 128-129CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
69Mahamoud, A. et al. (2007) Antibiotic efflux pumps in Gram-negative bacteria: the inhibitor response strategy. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 59, 1223-1229CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
70Thorarensen, A. et al. (2001) 3-Arylpiperidines as potentiators of existing antibacterial agents. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 11, 1903-1906Google Scholar
71Piddock, L.J. et al. (2010) Natural and synthetic compounds such as trimethoprim behave as inhibitors of efflux in Gram-negative bacteria. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 65, 1215-1223Google Scholar
72Stermitz, F.R. et al. (2000) Synergy in a medicinal plant: antimicrobial action of berberine potentiated by 5′‘-methoxyhydnocarpin, a multidrug pump inhibitor. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 97, 1433-1437Google Scholar
73Stermitz, F.R. et al. (2002) Two flavonols from Artemisa annua which potentiate the activity of berberine and norfloxacin against a resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus. Planta Medica 68, 1140-1141CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
74Morel, C. et al. (2003) Isoflavones as potentiators of antibacterial activity. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 51, 5677-5679Google Scholar
75Stavri, M., Piddock, L.J. and Gibbons, S. (2007) Bacterial efflux pump inhibitors from natural sources. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 59, 1247-1260Google Scholar
76Chusri, S. et al. (2009) Enhancing antibiotic activity: a strategy to control Acinetobacter infections. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 64, 1203-1211CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
77Flemming, H.C. and Wingender, J. (2010) The biofilm matrix. Nature Reviews. Microbiology 8, 623-633CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
78Mulcahy, H., Charron-Mazenod, L. and Lewenza, S. (2008) Extracellular DNA chelates cations and induces antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. PLoS Pathogens 4, e1000213CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
79Hatch, R.A. and Schiller, N.L. (1998) Alginate lyase promotes diffusion of aminoglycosides through the extracellular polysaccharide of mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 42, 974-977Google Scholar
80Shigeta, M. et al. (1997) Permeation of antimicrobial agents through Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms: a simple method. Chemotherapy 43, 340-345Google Scholar
81Rodriguez-Martinez, J.M., Ballesta, S. and Pascual, A. (2007) Activity and penetration of fosfomycin, ciprofloxacin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and co-trimoxazole in Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents 30, 366-368Google Scholar
82Walters, M.C. III et al. (2003) Contributions of antibiotic penetration, oxygen limitation, and low metabolic activity to tolerance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms to ciprofloxacin and tobramycin. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 47, 317-323CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
83Spoering, A.L. and Lewis, K. (2001) Biofilms and planktonic cells of Pseudomonas aeruginosa have similar resistance to killing by antimicrobials. Journal of Bacteriology 183, 6746-6751CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
84Lewis, K. (2007) Persister cells, dormancy and infectious disease. Nature Reviews. Microbiology 5, 48-56Google Scholar
85Dorr, T., Vulic, M. and Lewis, K. (2010) Ciprofloxacin causes persister formation by inducing the TisB toxin in Escherichia coli. PLoS Biology 8, e1000317Google Scholar
86Correia, F.F. et al. (2006) Kinase activity of overexpressed HipA is required for growth arrest and multidrug tolerance in Escherichia coli. Journal of Bacteriology 188, 8360-8367CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
87Richards, J.J. and Melander, C. (2009) Controlling bacterial biofilms. Chembiochem 10, 2287-2294Google Scholar
88Kolodkin-Gal, I. et al. (2010) D-amino acids trigger biofilm disassembly. Science 328, 627-629CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
89Junker, L.M. and Clardy, J. (2007) High-throughput screens for small-molecule inhibitors of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm development. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 51, 3582-3590CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
90Rogers, S.A. and Melander, C. (2008) Construction and screening of a 2-aminoimidazole library identifies a small molecule capable of inhibiting and dispersing bacterial biofilms across order, class, and phylum. Angewandte Chemie (International Edition in English) 47, 5229-5231Google Scholar
91Huigens, R.W. III et al. (2007) Inhibition of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm formation with Bromoageliferin analogues. Journal of American Chemical Society 129, 6966-6967Google Scholar
92Richards, J.J. et al. (2008) Synthesis and screening of an oroidin library against Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. Chembiochem 9, 1267-1279Google Scholar
93Rogers, S.A. et al. (2010) Synergistic effects between conventional antibiotics and 2-aminoimidazole-derived antibiofilm agents. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 54, 2112-2118Google Scholar
94Mazumdar, K., Asok Kumar, K. and Dutta, N.K. (2010) Potential role of the cardiovascular non-antibiotic (helper compound) amlodipine in the treatment of microbial infections: scope and hope for the future. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents 36, 295-302Google Scholar
95Dasgupta, A. et al. (2010) Experimental analyses of synergistic combinations of antibiotics with a recently recognised antibacterial agent, lacidipine. European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases 29, 239-243Google Scholar
96Fukuda, T. et al. (2005) Phenatic acids A and B, new potentiators of antifungal miconazole activity produced by Streptomyces sp. K03-0132. Journal of Antibiotics 58, 252-259Google Scholar
97Sun, L. et al. (2009) In vitro activities of retigeric acid B alone and in combination with azole antifungal agents against Candida albicans. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 53, 1586-1591Google Scholar
98Yamazaki, H. et al. (2009) Xanthoradones, new potentiators of imipenem activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, produced by Penicillium radicum FKI-3765-2: I. Taxonomy, fermentation, isolation and biological properties. Journal of Antibiotics 62, 431-434Google Scholar
99Yamazaki, H., Omura, S. and Tomoda, H. (2010) Xanthoradone C, a new potentiator of imipenem activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, produced by Penicillium radicum FKI-3765-2. Journal of Antibiotics 63, 329-330Google Scholar
100Dutta, N.K. et al. (2007) Activity of diclofenac used alone and in combination with streptomycin against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in mice. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents 30, 336-340CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
101Mazumdar, K. et al. (2009) The anti-inflammatory non-antibiotic helper compound diclofenac: an antibacterial drug target. European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases 28, 881-891CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
102Fukuda, T., Tomoda, H. and Omura, S. (2005) Citridones, new potentiators of antifungal miconazole activity, produced by Penicillium sp. FKI-1938. II. Structure elucidation. Journal of Antibiotics 58, 315-321Google Scholar
103Fukuda, T. et al. (2005) Citridones, new potentiators of antifungal miconazole activity, produced by Penicillium sp. FKI-1938. I. Taxonomy, fermentation, isolation and biological properties. Journal of Antibiotics 58, 309-314Google Scholar
104Torella, J.P., Chait, R. and Kishony, R. (2010) Optimal drug synergy in antimicrobial treatments. PLoS Computational Biology 6, e1000796Google Scholar

Further reading, resources and contacts

Pillai, S., Moellering, R.C. and Eliopoulos, G.M. (2005) Antimicrobial combinations. In Antibiotics in Laboratory Medicine (Lorian, V. ed.), Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, PhiladelphiaGoogle Scholar
Torella, J.P., Chait, R. and Kishony, R. (2010) Optimal drug synergy in antimicrobial treatments. PLoS Computational Biology 6, e1000796Google Scholar
De Pascale, G. and Wright, G.D. (2010) Antibiotic resistance by enzyme inactivation: from mechanisms to solutions. Chembiochem 11, 1325-1334Google Scholar
Piddock, L.J. (2006) Multidrug-resistance efflux pumps – not just for resistance. Nature Reviews. Microbiology 4, 629-636Google Scholar