Metallo-Drugs as promising antibacterial agents and their modes of action

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance has been a growing worldwide public health issue. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that the search for new antibiotics is slow, while antibiotic resistance is growing. WHO has also declared that antibiotic resistance is one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity in the 21st century. Therefore, this review discusses the potential of metal-based drugs as antibacterial agents from the period of the early 2000s to date. The review reveals that a lot of preliminary work has been done to assess these as potential drugs. However, their mode of action is faintly described. Furthermore, a few examples of metal-based drugs assessed for their modes of action are described. These compounds are ideal as they have been observed to work with one or more modes of action and they are also able to induce or increase activity of free organic compounds once bound to the metal. Nonetheless, more studies are needed to understand the modes of action of other transition metal compounds.