Synthetic Biology Group, MIT Synthetic Biology Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Biological Engineering, and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Harvard Biophysics Program, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA; The Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Synthetic Biology Group, MIT Synthetic Biology Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Biological Engineering, and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA; Harvard Biophysics Program, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA; The Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics, Cambridge, MA, USA; Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, São Paulo, Brazil.
Curr Opin Microbiol. 2017 Jun;37:95-102. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2017.05.014. Epub 2017 Jun 14.
Antibiotics started to be used almost 90 years ago to eradicate life-threatening infections. The urgency of the problem required rapid, broad-spectrum elimination of infectious agents. Since their initial discovery, these antimicrobials have saved millions of lives. However, they are not exempt from side effects, which include the indiscriminate disruption of the beneficial microbiota. Recent technological advances have enabled the development of antimicrobials that can selectively target a gene, a cellular process, or a microbe of choice. These strategies bring us a step closer to developing personalized therapies that exclusively remove disease-causing infectious agents. Here, we advocate the preservation of our beneficial microbes and provide an overview of promising alternatives to broad-spectrum antimicrobials. Specifically, we emphasize nucleic acid and peptide-based systems as a foundation for next-generation alternatives to antibiotics that do not challenge our microbiota and may help to mitigate the spread of resistance.
抗生素几乎在 90 年前就开始被用于消除危及生命的感染。问题的紧迫性要求快速、广谱地消除感染源。自最初发现以来，这些抗生素已经挽救了数百万人的生命。然而，它们并非没有副作用，包括对有益微生物区系的无差别破坏。最近的技术进步使开发能够选择性靶向特定基因、细胞过程或选择的微生物的抗生素成为可能。这些策略使我们朝着开发专门去除致病感染源的个性化治疗方法迈进了一步。在这里，我们主张保留我们有益的微生物，并概述有前途的广谱抗生素替代品。具体来说，我们强调基于核酸和肽的系统作为抗生素的下一代替代品的基础，这些替代品不会对我们的微生物群构成挑战，并且可能有助于减缓耐药性的传播。
