Multidisciplinary strategies against AMR: monitoring, characterizing, and targeting of priority bacterial pathogens

The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an important health and socioeconomic threat with global dimensions, which is developing towards an emergency/pandemic crisis. No drugs are available to address the disease, and diagnostic tools are poorly effective. This negatively impacts the treatment and survival of critically ill patients. As such, drug-resistant bacteria may spread outside hospital settings, representing a critical risk for the global population. Current research in this field is highly fragmented and mostly mono-disciplinary, thus limiting the development of innovative diagnostic and therapeutic solutions.The World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted AMR one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity. Multiple pathogenic bacteria, mostly from the Gram-negative family, have been prioritized also based on their drug-resistance profile. Finally, recent statistics have highlighted that, in the absence of focused actions, the death rate for AMR and related issues in 2050 will surpass that estimated for cancer.In this scenario, multidisciplinary and intersectoral efforts are highly relevant to monitor the spread of AMR in different countries and continents, as well as in the validation of bacterial targets and in the development of focused therapeutic strategies including drug delivery. Established on the concerted initiative of the EURESTOP COST Action (CA21145, www.eurestop.eu), this Research Topic aims to summarize the state of the art in monitoring, targeting and characterizing WHO priority pathogenic bacteria by highlighting multidisciplinary efforts that combine the expertise of different research groups towards the advancement of this relevant field. Topic editors: Younes Smani, Mattia Mori, Cristina Nativi Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/73196/multidisciplinary-strategies-against-amr-monitoring-characterizing-and-targeting-of-priority-bacterial-pathogens