Antibiotic resistance: lessons for the future.

It is clear that emergence of resistant bacterial strains will continue to be a problem as long as clinicians use the currently available antimicrobial agents. Past and current policies for dealing with resistance have, at best, been only partially effective. Thus, novel approaches to the problem of antimicrobial resistance are badly needed. Development of novel "classic" antimicrobial agents, chemical modification of currently known agents to overcome resistance, and the development of potentiators of known antimicrobials represent three areas that have been partially exploited in the past and continue to represent fertile fields for additional investigation. In addition, a number of investigators are working to develop inhibitors of new bacterial targets and to develop inhibitors of genes relating to virulence or pathogenesis. Although the deployment of antisense nucleotides as antimicrobial agents is theoretically appealing, to date, it has not been possible to develop any of these agents for clinical use.