| Discovery of penicillin enlighten humanity with its miraculous results in curing bacterial infection. During the time users forgot the words of Alexander Fleming regarding alarming the antibiotic overuse in 1945 with the remarks It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them, and the same thing has occasionally happened in the body. In a very short time evidences of penicillin- resistant S. aureus emerged in 1942. Thus, microbes proved to be smarter than us and it is an ongoing phenomena. The condition is supposed to be responsible for the about 1.3 million global deaths with expected 50 million deaths per year by 2050 including 2 million deaths in India.
To overcome current scenario of antimicrobial resistance it is pertinent to understand the status of AMR, its global scenario and impact on society. With this objective first part of the book is included chapters on these topics. In recent time, the role of animals is always a topic of debate in transmission of antimicrobial resistance and it is also address in a chapter along with discussion on unusual causes of emergence of AMR as well as common mistakes responsible for therapeutic failure against AMR. These will provide newer approaches to address acquisition of resistance by bacteria in the presence of an antibiotic. The advancement of science and emergence of new diagnostic methods have supported the understanding the mechanism of acquaintance of resistance, spread and application of advanced methods to find out resistant genes responsible for drug resistance and genes responsible for the transmission of resistance from resistant to nonresistant microbes. The role of resistomes is also elaborated with possible pharmacological interventions to overcome AMR. The role of computational Biology and next generation sequencing in the surveillance of AMR for the rapid anti-microbial drug discovery is also discussed with the insights of quorum sensing to mitigate transfer of drug resistance genes. The editors and authors are of the opinion that their manuscripts published in the form of book will provide a ready to use reference in understanding AMR, its mechanism and use of new diagnostic as well as mitigating mechanisms. It will further open new avenues of AMR understanding leading the changes in current strategies to overcome AMR. We hope that the hard work and sincere efforts of experienced authors will be useful for the policy makers and other stakeholders. It will inculcate new thought process on AMR understanding in upcoming scientists. |
