| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2529988 | Current Opinion in Pharmacology | 2011 | 7 Pages |
Market launching of a new antibiotic requires knowing in advance its benefits and possible risks, and among them how rapidly resistance will emerge and spread among bacterial pathogens. This information is not only useful from a public health point of view, but also for pharmaceutical industry, in order to reduce potential waste of resources in the development of a compound that might be discontinued at the short term because of resistance development. Most assays currently used for predicting the emergence of resistance are based on culturing the target bacteria by serial passages in the presence of increasing concentrations of antibiotics. Whereas these assays may be valuable for identifying mutations that might cause resistance, they are not useful to establish how fast resistance might appear, neither to address the risk of spread of resistance genes by horizontal gene transfer. In this article, we review recent information pertinent for a more accurate prediction on the emergence and dispersal of antibiotic resistance.
► Predicting antibiotic resistance is important for health and for pharmaceutical companies. ► Current methods based in passages are not sufficient for such predictions. ► Passages are still useful for predicting mutation-driven resistance. ► Analysis of fitness costs is needed for predicting stability and spread of resistance. ► Multilevel molecular epidemiology is needed to predict dissemination of resistance genes.
