Traditional Medicine

Everybody is at risk of being infected by drug-resistant microscopic organisms. Managing with sickness has never been less demanding within the history of our species. At the current rate of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in microbes, specialists foresee that battling infections tuberculosis, HIV, and intestinal sickness will become more complicated. Antimicrobial resistance is rendering numerous life-saving drugs useless. Antibiotic-resistant microbes, known as “superbugs,” are getting to be more various and more harmful, thanks to the proceeding abuse of anti-microbials. Natural medication offers an alternative to these progressively ineffectual drugs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), traditional medicine is a holistic term enclosing diverse health practices. Concurring to a report by the College of Maryland Therapeutic Center, turmeric's volatile oil serves as a common anti-microbial.

Alternative Therapies

Antibiotic resistance is one of the leading public health concerns across the globe. Antibiotics are losing their effectiveness, leading to uncertainty in available treatment options to clinicians. Resistance to antibiotics is at an all-time high, and there is a pressing demand to look for alternative antimicrobial candidates other than antibiotics. Alternative therapies include use of bacteriophages, lytic proteins, nanoparticles, phytochemicals, quorum quenchers, and other antibacterial or antivirulent agents that can eradicate bacterial infection alone or in conjunction with antibiotics. Alternative therapies can replace or lower the effective antibiotic dose, which can help to tackle antibiotic resistance as well as counter its side effects. For sustainable development of antimicrobials against drug resistant bugs, novel alternative strategies need to be explored in the near future. Alternative therapies can help researchers to construct a toolbox containing a variety of antimicrobial agents, which can be used alone, in combination with other agents, or in rotation.

Emerging Strategies for Sensing of Blood-Stream Bacterial Diseases

Early prognosis of infection has been a major concern for clinicians worldwide. The diagnostic investigation in clinical practice focuses on resolving the complex mysteries of the deep-seated systemic infections, which are often difficult to decipher. Amongst the infectious diseases, the bacterial infections are the most ubiquitously found infections. The clinics have moved to application of molecular imaging techniques for early detection of systemic bacterial infections which even allow the follow-up during antimicrobial therapy to assess the efficacy of a particular course. Further, new age diagnostic methodology has seen a paradigm shift to the detection of biomarkers in the blood samples of patients.

Nanomaterials to Overcome Emergence and Re-Emergence of Superbugs

Antimicrobial resistance remains a substantial global health concern, invigorating the critical need for alternate therapeutic options to combat chronic intracellular infections and biofilms so as to shorten the hospital stays, and hence mortality. Nanomaterials have been developed as delivery carriers for antibiotics to improve their penetration through these biofilms. Nanoformulations of existing antibiotics has led to enhanced bioavailability and site specificity. Moreover, diagnosis of infections using efficient nanosensors or probes may speed up the treatment process at earlier stages of infection.

Extra-Pulmonary TB

Tuberculosis is considered a fatal respiratory disease commonly seen in developing countries. This chapter includes the global scenario of TB patients and brief description of TB history, its pathogenesis, types, diagnosis tests, emergence of MDR (multi drug resistance) and XDR (extensively drug resistance). The traditional chemotherapy of TB includes first and second line drug therapy. These lines of therapies face many difficulties such as low solubility, low bioavailability, and stability issues. Therefore, some new drugs were introduced in the market that showed effective results to the patients. Nanoparticulate drug delivery gained much focus in recent years due to its advantages and ideal characteristics. Numerous nanoparticles, liposomal formulations, and polymeric micelles were reported by the researchers with significant and considerable results. Inhalable formulations were also prepared by scientists that showed effective and remarkable anti-tuberculosis action on TB patients. Many efforts are awaited to completely eradicate TB from the planet.

Exploring the Potential of Peptides and Peptidomimetics in Biosensing

Biosensors are devices that capture the biological signal and convert it into a detectable electrical signal through transduction. Biological entities like DNA, RNA, and proteins/enzymes can be conjugated onto the biosensor surface to detect and observe certain biological analytes in environment, biomedical, and food industries. Peptides have been efficiently used in the fabrication of peptide-based biosensors due to their attractive properties like established synthesis protocols, diverse structures, and as highly enzyme-selective substrates. However, owing to their labile nature, peptidomimetics are the best alternatives at the bioreceptor interface due to their specificity and stability, relatively low cost and easy modifications, and capability to form supramolecular assemblies like nanosheets. Such bioconjugation strategies efficiently convert interaction information into a measurable signal, thus highlighting the importance in the fabrication of next-generation novel robust biosensors desirable for detection and dissemination of pathogens causing infections in the living and non-living worlds.

Resistance Phenotypes and Surveillance

The emergence of drug resistance complicates surveillance and treatment of antimicrobial phenotypes. For example, the rise of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae influence delivery of care. Moreover, a lack of surveillance programs in most of the developing world exacerbates the problem of MDR. Existing studies in humans are mostly retrospective single-center surveillance-based studies that look at the molecular makeup and prevalence of phenotypic resistance for several pathogens. Very few studies examined infection prevention measures or antimicrobial stewardship activities, and of those that did, none of them were multicenter. The aim of this chapter is to explore prevalent phenotypes in clinical settings and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance programs throughout the world.

Natural Products in the Fight Against Multi-Drug-Resistant Bacteria

It is well recognised that the antimicrobial resistance crisis has approached critical levels, and current treatment options are very limited, especially in the treatment of infections caused by resistant bacteria. Thus, ongoing research is focused on the development of new molecules which have broader antimicrobial activity. However, the advancements in drug development studies using synthetic compounds has led to a lack of success. Also, economic and regulatory issues have formed a challenge as well. Therefore, research has focused again on natural products. A large number of natural products and natural product-derived compounds are still in various stages of clinical development. Here, current research on the potential uses of natural products or their templates as viable sources of new drug candidates have been discussed to construct an understanding towards the goal of development of new antimicrobials to overcome resistant pathogens.

Advances in Clinical Diagnosis of Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) holds a central and deadly platform around the globe, affecting mankind with around one-third of the world being affected by latent TB. TB progresses in the body through inhalation process and has a critical discrimination in terms of affecting individuals depending upon age, sex, socio-economic status, and even the stature of nation (developed or developing). The biggest challenge in TB management is accurate, direct, early diagnosis, and an ability to differentiate the type of mycobacterium. The most common and reliable direct methods include tuberculosis skin test (TST), smear microscopy, nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT), and immuno-chromatographic-based methods. However, culturing the specimen on a mycobacterium specific media is considered the ‘gold standard' for diagnosis of TB by the WHO. Mycobacterium cultures are used extensively for bacilli differentiation and also for predicting drug susceptibility testing in multi-drug-resistant TB. This chapter discusses the merits and demerits of many approaches to distinguish and identify the type of mycobacterium.

Harnessing the Capability of CADD Methods in the Prediction of Anti-COVID Drug Likeliness

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed many lives and added to the social, economic, and psychological distress. The contagious disease has quickly spread to almost 200 countries following the regional outbreak in China. As the number of infected populations increases exponentially, there is a pressing demand for anti-COVID drugs and vaccines. Virtual screening provides possible leads while extensively cutting down the time and resources required for ab-initio drug design. The chapter aims to highlight the various computer-aided drug design methods to predict an anti-COVID drug molecule.