Drug resistance has evolved from being an infrequent and manageable occurrence in the treatment of microbial infections, to a healthcare problem on a global scale. The last five years has seen a meteoric rise in the cases of life-threatening infections by mutated forms of common bacteria, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE). Eradication of such multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains is proving difficult since there are not enough effective antimicrobials on the market, and very few in the development pipelines. There is though, a concerted effort to develop new compounds capable of combating these infections effectively. A novel drug-target binding detection system is proving itself to be a big hit in this search. It is based on micro-cantilever technology and provides exquisite information on the nature of a drug-target interaction. Furthermore, it can be applied on a high throughput basis making the search for new products much quicker too.
展开▼
