Combination therapies for combating antimicrobial resistance

New drug development strategies are needed to combat antimicrobial resistance. The object of this perspective is to highlight one such strategy: treating infections with sets of drugs rather than individual drugs. We will highlight three categories of combination therapy: those that inhibit targets in different pathways; those that inhibit distinct nodes in the same pathway; and those that inhibit the very same target in different ways. We will then consider examples of naturally occurring combination therapies produced by micro-organisms, and conclude by discussing key opportunities and challenges for making more widespread use of drug combinations.

► New drug development strategies are needed to combat antimicrobial resistance.
► This perspective highlights one such strategy: combination therapies.
► Combination therapies differ in their number of components and pathways targeted.
► Micro-organisms produce ‘natural’ combination therapies.