Editorial: Bacterial Mechanisms of Antibiotic Resistance: A Structural Perspective

Abstract

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are responsible for millions of hard-to-treat infections annually. Since antibiotic “miracle drugs” were first introduced into clinical use, resistance has closely followed; more recently, this problem has been greatly exacerbated by their extensive use in medicine and agriculture, combined with the remarkable ability of bacterial populations to rapidly evolve and exchange genetic material. The rise of multidrug resistance (MDR), coupled with declining availability of newly approved or in-development treatments, threatens to fundamentally alter our ability to treat infections. Whether the most pessimistic predictions of a future “post-antibiotic era” become reality over the coming decades will depend on actions taken in the present. This Research Topic collects together articles that highlight the recent contributions of structural biology and related approaches to our understanding of antibiotic resistance and adaptions used by bacteria against drugs that target key cellular structures, complexes or pathways, as well as drug development efforts to counter these resistance mechanisms. New insights from such approaches are likely to be critical in future efforts to develop strategies to overcome existing resistance mechanisms and to identify targets for novel antibiotic development.