New approaches to antibacterial drug discovery

The discovery of small-molecule drug candidates is a challenging multidimensional process that has distinct preclinical and clinical stages. The early-stage small-molecule drug discovery began by identification and lead generation that was later improved to overcome the challenges associated with different parameters related to the active ingredient characteristics, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics (PD), efficacy, dose, and safety. Recent technological and analytical advances in this area have succeeded to identify new drug molecules and targets. In this chapter, the relation between natural products exploration and drug discovery is discussed by also mentioning different diversification methods. In addition, a brief review on the different types of target-based technologies with the accompanied automated molecule design such as de novo design, molecular docking, and microfluids-based synthesis was negotiated for the benefit of drug discovery. In this chapter, the role of quorum sensing in the antibacterial drug discovery was discussed based on its ability of regulating bacterial infection. Apart from natural products of drug discovery, other methods such as biosensors and induced pluripotent stem cells were presented by demonstrating their roles in producing new clinical products that may serve the drug discovery field. When biosensors succeed in quantifying a defined analyte in a final drug product and recording all the changes occurred after a drug entrance to the cell, stem cells demonstrate its capability in treating neurodegenerative diseases.