Bioinformatics approaches to combat antimicrobial resistance: A review of bioinformatics tools and strategies to understand and identify resistance

Antimicrobial resistance has become a growing global concern leading to multiple deaths yearly. In the year 2020, the world health organization (WHO 2020) estimated the number of deaths in the year 2019 were about 1.27 million due to complications directly linked to AMR. This figure is predicted to multiply by almost ten times of what it is now by the year 2050 if measures to curb the spread of AMR and understand this resistance are not properly followed. Bioinformatics is an emerging field that uses computational approaches to analyze biological data. This can be applied to understand antimicrobial resistance, identify and predict resistance genes using bioinformatics tools and approaches. The present study highlighted the Successful case studies that bioinformatics tools were used to understand and identify resistance mechanisms and the impact it had in resistance management using Google Scholar, Pubmed/Medline, and Scopus databases, genomic information services from Centre for genomic epidemiology, such as Resfinder, PlasmidFinder, SerotypeFinder and Spades. The study concluded that bioinformatics tools have been successfully used to understand and identify resistance and overall, there should be more inclusion of bioinformatics tools in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.