RECENT ADVANCEMENTS IN MICROBIOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO DRUG DISCOVERY

The process of identifying new therapeutic agents can be considered the key to improving medical treatment and preventing new diseases. Conventional drug discovery relies mostly on chemical synthesis powered by guesswork and trial-and-error approaches, but with the application of microbiology, the situation changes drastically with the use of bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes. These microbes synthesize an impressive number of bioactive metabolites that yield remarkable biological activities, such as antibacterial, antitumor, and immunomodulatory properties, that propound them for use as drugs. Microbiological techniques are slowly taking center stage in the drug discovery process because of developments that have occurred in the recent past. High-throughput screening (HTS) facilitates the assessment of many microbial and chemical cocktails and expedites the discovery of new drugs. Metagenomics improves this process because it involves sequencing samples of genetic material extracted from the environment and identifying new biosynthetic pathways and products derived from previously unstudied microbial populations. Genomic information is used to understand the genetic regulation of secondary metabolites and thus to increase or engineer microbes to produce further bioactive molecules. In addition, new interdisciplinary fields, such as synthetic biology and microbial engineering, have brought about new solutions for formulating and constructing new biosynthetic pathways and synthesizing high-value natural herb products. These techniques have led to the discovery of new antibiotics and anticancer compounds.