Development of antimicrobial agents in the era of new and reemerging infectious diseases and increasing antibiotic resistance

During the past 2 decades, new infectious diseases have appeared and old on es previously thought to be controlled have reemerged. New and reemerging i nfectious agents will continue to pose serious threats well into the 21st c entury. The prediction that the threat of infectious disease may not dimini sh is supported by evidence that infectious agents cause many chronic disea ses and cancer of previous unknown etiology, Moreover, the utility of exist ing antimicrobial agents is rapidly eroding, tipping the balance in favor o f multidrug-resistant pathogens, and there appear to be few, if any, new cl asses of drugs currently in clinical development. The need for research dir ected toward development of new antibiotics has never been greater. Advance s in research technologies and microbial genome sequencing in the past deca de have led to identification of a large number of new targets. Functional genomics and integrative biology should validate these targets and provide the best opportunity for developing effective new therapies, improved diagn ostic techniques, and better tools to understand host-pathogen interactions .