Tackling Antibiotic Resistance with Compounds of Natural Origin: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

Drug-resistant bacteria pose a serious threat to human health worldwide. Current antibiotics are losing efficacy and new antimicrobial agents are urgently needed. Living organisms are an invaluable source of antimicrobial compounds. The antimicrobial activity of the most representative natural products of animal, bacterial, fungal and plant origin are reviewed in this paper. Their activity against drug-resistant bacteria, their mechanisms of action, the possible development of resistance against them, their role in current medicine and their future perspectives are discussed. Electronic databases such as PubMed, Scopus and ScienceDirect were used to search scientific contributions until September 2020, using relevant keywords. Natural compounds of heterogeneous origins have been shown to possess antimicrobial capabilities, including against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The most commonly found mechanisms of antimicrobial action are related to protein biosynthesis and alteration of cell walls and membranes. Various natural compounds, especially phytochemicals, have shown synergistic capacity with antibiotics. There is little literature on the development of specific resistance mechanisms against natural antimicrobial compounds. New technologies such as -omics, network pharmacology and informatics have the potential to identify and characterize new natural antimicrobial compounds in the future. This knowledge may be useful for the development of future therapeutic strategies.

The antimicrobial capacity of Cistus salviifolius and Punica granatum plant extracts against clinical pathogens is related to their polyphenolic composition

“…These combinations can act against many different bacterial molecular targets, sometimes potentially avoiding common antibiotic resistance mechanisms 3 . There is evidence of polyphenols and plant extracts capable of disrupting the bacterial plasma membrane, inhibiting efflux pumps, inhibiting the formation of biofilms and inhibiting the action of proteins related to antimicrobial resistance such as PBP2a 4 .…”

“…Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche, Spain. 4 CIBER, Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y la Nutrición, CIBERobn, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CB12/03/30038), Madrid, Spain. 5 These authors jointly supervised this work: Enrique Barrajón-Catalán and Vicente Micol.…”

Valorization of Winemaking By-Products as a Novel Source of Antibacterial Properties: New Strategies to Fight Antibiotic Resistance

“…Natural products are still an important source of alternative antimicrobials [ 16 , 74 , 75 , 76 ]. In particular, plant polyphenols may offer promise in this respect [ 2 , 24 , 77 , 78 ].…”

African Plant-Based Natural Products with Antivirulence Activities to the Rescue of Antibiotics

“…Antimicrobial resistance, increasingly observed within a wide range of pathogenic bacteria, has become a worldwide threat to public health [ 1 , 2 ]. Over time, bacteria adapt to the drugs that are designed to kill them, evolving or selecting resistance mechanisms to ensure survival.…”