Development of novel antimicrobial strategies and surveillance program to fight antimicrobial resistance

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics represents a major public health problem and measures to prevent the increase in antibiotic resistant organisms require knowledge of both the dissemination of antibiotic resistance using the surveillance approach and alternative strategies for tackling its. The surveillance of antibiotic resistance is a crucial element for the implementation of intervention strategies aimed at preserving the efficacy of currently available antimicrobial agents, including last-resource antibiotics. Beside conventional pathogens, there is increasing agreement about the importance of monitoring commensal bacteria, which can constitute a natural reservoir not only of resistance strains, but also of resistance genes that are potentially transferable among members of the resident microbiota. As such, there is an urgent need to develop alternatives to conventional antimicrobial strategies against resistant organisms, with a considerable attention to MDR gram-negative bacteria, that could play a major role in development of difficult-to-treat biofilm-related infections. This PhD project aimed at providing novel insights about alternative therapeutic approaches against Gram-negative MDR bacteria and at investigating their dissemination pathways in healthy humans living in remote communities of Bolivian Chaco.