The urgent need for metallo-β-lactamase inhibitors: an unattended global threat.

ABSTRACT: Due to their superior tolerability and efficacy, β-lactams are the most potent and prescribed class of antibiotics in the clinic. The emergence of resistance to those antibiotics, mainly due to the production of bacterial enzymes called β-lactamases, has been partially solved by the introduction of β-lactamase inhibitors, which restore the activity of otherwise obsolete molecules. This solution is limited because currently available β-lactamase inhibitors only work against serine β-lactamases, whereas metallo-β-lactamases continue to spread, evolve, and confer resistance to all β-lactams, including carbapenems. Furthermore, the increased use of antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial pneumonia in severely sick patients with COVID-19 might exacerbate the problem of antimicrobial resistance

SUBMITTER: Mojica MF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8266270 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature