Resistance and Adaptation of Bacteria to Non-Antibiotic Antibacterial Agents: Physical Stressors, Nanoparticles, and Bacteriophages

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance is a significant threat to human health worldwide, forcing scientists to explore non-traditional antibacterial agents to support rapid interventions and combat the emergence and spread of drug resistant bacteria. Many new antibiotic-free approaches are being developed while the old ones are being revised, resulting in creating unique solutions that arise at the interface of physics, nanotechnology, and microbiology. Specifically, physical factors (e.g., pressure, temperature, UV light) are increasingly used for industrial sterilization. Nanoparticles (unmodified or in combination with toxic compounds) are also applied to circumvent in vivo drug resistance mechanisms in bacteria. Recently, bacteriophage-based treatments are also gaining momentum due to their high bactericidal activity and specificity. Although the number of novel approaches for tackling the antimicrobial resistance crisis is snowballing, it is still unclear if any proposed solutions would provide a long-term remedy. This review aims to provide a detailed overview of how bacteria acquire resistance against these non-antibiotic factors. We also discuss innate bacterial defense systems and how bacteriophages have evolved to tackle them.

Cationic Polymer-Coated Magnetic Nanoparticles with Antibacterial Properties: Synthesis and In Vitro Characterization

“…[ 4 ]. In a search for new, cheap, and simple solutions of these problems, a significant effort has been devoted to the development of antibacterial agents based on nanoparticles [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. In contrast to conventional antibiotics, such materials possess a range of unique physicochemical and biological properties, e.g., high surface-to-volume ratio that increases contact area with microorganisms, high stability, possibility of easy modification with various functional groups, ligands, targeting agents and other biomolecules, enabling not only disinfection, but also its monitoring and targeting [ 8 , 9 , 10 ].…”

Bacteriophages: A possible solution to combat enteropathogenic Escherichia coli infections in neonatal goats

“…2021; Raza et al . 2021). In this article, we describe the isolation of highly pathogenic strains of E .…”

“…Since bacteriophages are highly selective, they are ineffective against the host nonpathogenic flora (Principi et al 2019). Thus, phages may be one of those multi-strategic instruments that could modulate microbial diversity and assist us in combating MDR bacterial strains as we are about to reach the postantibiotic period, where we are lagging in the fight against many diseases due to our same old classical approach (Aslam et al 2018;Bhargava et al 2021;Raza et al 2021). In this article, we describe the isolation of highly pathogenic strains of E. coli and their molecular characterization in relation to their AMR traits that potentially constitute a risk.…”

Improving the Antimicrobial and Mechanical Properties of Epoxy Resins via Nanomodification: An Overview

“…The emergence of novel pathogenic viruses and antibiotic resistant human pathogens (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, parasites), due to their highly-mutative capacities and rapid morphological changes, have prompted research into alternative antimicrobial materials [ 1 , 2 , 3 ], including plastics with long-term biocidal activity in nanostructured “bulk” material, and bioactive surfaces, whose efficacy involves a direct contact (and subsequent localized reaction) for microbial inactivation.…”