Date of Award

Spring 5-2021

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Biological Science

Advisor/Committee Chair

Richard P. Cunningham

Committee Member

Ing-Nang Wang

Abstract

With a growing concern of healthcare crises like the current COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare sector is in a dire need of finding solutions to the increasing multidrug resistance in microbial organisms. In the 2019, the UN Ad hoc Interagency Coordinating Group on Antimicrobial Resistance stated that if ignored, multidrug resistance organisms (MDROs) could cost 10 million lives each year by 2050. However, this is not a problem of the “future” per say, it is rather of the past, the present, and the future. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 700,000 people die of multidrug resistance (MDR) each year. Considering the present situation, the misuse of antibiotics in trying to combat the COVID-19 pandemic will likely accelerate antibacterial resistant genes (ARGs) spread across the globe. Hence, this is another wake up call for the urgent need of actions against antimicrobial resistance. For this literature review, I analyzed multiple scientific studies on various antibiotic alternatives that can treat bacterial infections including MDR. Due to time constraints, this library thesis only focuses on bacteriophages, CRISPR-Cas based antibacterial, nanoparticles, and anti-plasmid & plasmid curing agents. These therapeutics are proposed to have better outcome in the management of ARGs’ spread than the conventional antibiotics.

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