Iqbal Ahmad

Farrukh Aqil

Combating bacterial infections calls for a multidisciplinary approach and this is what is on offer here. Written by an experienced international team of researchers from various fields ranging from biotechnology to traditional medicine, the book provides complete and comprehensive coverage of topics relevant to new antibacterial drugs. This ready reference and handbook adopts a novel approach, focusing on combating multi-drug resistance in bacteria by developing antibacterials with new target sites, using new advances in drug discovery as well as natural products. Divided into three sections, the first describes the problem of drug resistance and the need for new drugs, while the second treats recent trends and new classes of drugs, including relevant developments in transcriptomics and proteomics leading to new antimicrobial drug discovery, and a new generation of antibiotics and non-antibiotics. The third section on natural products discusses the antibacterial action of phytocompounds, plant extracts, essential oils and honey as well as the role of probiotics in bacterial infections. Invaluable to students of medicine, pharmaceutical sciences, phytomedicine and microbiology and all those wanting to know about the possibilities and limitations of new antibacterial drugs. Furthermore, its coverage of plants and other natural products makes this relevant to the pharmaceutical and herbal industries.

New Strategies Combating Bacterial Infection

Jamal Arif

Raghuram Kandimalla

Role of Phytochemicals and Structural Analogs in Cancer Chemoprevention and Therapeutics

Mohammad Owais

Mohammed Shahid

Fungi are eukaryotic microorganisms that are closely related to humans at cellular level. Human fungal pathogens belong to various classes of fungi, mainly zygo- cetes, ascomycetes, basidiomycetes, and deuteromycetes. In recent years, fungal infections have dramatically increased as a result of improved diagnosis, high frequency of catheterization, instrumentation, etc. However, the main cause remains the increasing number of immunosuppressed patients, mostly because of HIV infection and indiscriminate usage of antineoplastic and immunosuppressive agents, broad-spectrum antibiotics and prosthetic devices, and grafts in clinical settings. Presently available means of combating fungal infections are still weak and clumsy compared to control of bacterial infection. The present scenario of antifungal therapy is still based on two classes of antifungal drugs (polyenes and azoles). These drugs are effective in many cases, but display toxicity and limited spectrum of ef?cacy. The recent trend towards emergence of drug-resistant isolates in the clinic is an additional problem. In recent years, a few new antifungal drugs have entered the clinics, but they are expected to undergo same fate as the older antifungal drugs. The application of fungal genomics offers an unparalleled opportunity to develop novel antifungal drugs. However, it is too early to expect any novel drugs, as the antifungal drug discovery program is in the stage of infancy. Interestingly, several novel antifungal drug targets have been identi?ed and validated.

Problems and Remedy

Combating Fungal Infections

Farrukh Aqil

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