Breakthroughs in bacterial resistance mechanisms and the potential ways to combat them

•Antimicrobial resistance is due to antibiotic efflux, antibiotic inactivation, biofilm formation.•Developing new generations of antibiotics solely is not promising approach to resolve the antibacterial resistance problem.•Using natural antibacterial substances provides a solution to combat microbial resistance.•Applying nanoparticulate systems is a potential strategy to counteract bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents.

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria have increased at an alarming rate over recent decades and cause serious problems. The emergence of resistant infections caused by these bacteria has led to mortality and morbidity; consequently there is an urgent need to find solution for combating bacterial resistance. In the present paper, first, some mechanisms of antibiotic resistance such as changing the antibacterial agent's uptake and biofilm formation are discussed. Following, for removing the antibacterial resistance, a wide range of approaches like developing new generations of antibiotics, combination therapy, natural antibacterial substances and applying nanoparticulate systems have been explained. Among them, antibiotic delivery via nanoparticles, has been attracted more attention recently, so discussed in present review, separately.