Review of approaches to determining the antibacterial activity of new natural and synthetic compounds

Abstract

The rapidly growing threat of microbial resistance has driven increased interest in the research and development of new antimicrobial agents from various sources. Consequently, increasing attention is being paid to methods for screening and assessing antimicrobial activity. Some testing methods, such as disk diffusion, agar well diffusion, and broth dilution, are well-known and widely used. However, methods for assessing antibiofilm activity and identifying and inhibiting dormant forms have not been widely adopted. Methods such as flow cytometry, fluorescence, and bioluminescence provide rapid results for assessing the activity of antimicrobial compounds and understanding their impact on cell viability and damage, but require specialized equipment and subsequent assessment of the reproducibility and standardization. This article provides an overview of bacterial susceptibility testing methods used to analyze new compounds with antibacterial potential. It presents widely known and laboratory-developed methods for detecting antibacterial activity. These include methods for identifying antagonist strains that produce antimicrobial compounds, quantitative assessment of antibacterial activity, identification of dormant forms of bacteria, inhibition of bacterial adhesion on a solid surface, the effect of antibacterial compounds on the biofilm formation and the destruction of mature biofilms, and studying the mechanism of action, as well as enhancing antimicrobial properties.