Bacterial Stress Responses as Potential Targets in Overcoming Antibiotic Resistance

Bacteria can be adapted to adverse and detrimental conditions that induce general and specific responses to DNA damage as well as acid, heat, cold, starvation, oxidative, envelope, and osmotic stresses. The stress-triggered regulatory systems are involved in bacterial survival processes, such as adaptation, physiological changes, virulence potential, and antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic susceptibility to several antibiotics is reduced due to the activation of stress responses in cellular physiology by the stimulation of resistance mechanisms, the promotion of a resistant lifestyle (biofilm or persistence), and/or the induction of resistance mutations. Hence, the activation of bacterial stress responses poses a serious threat to the efficacy and clinical success of antibiotic therapy. Bacterial stress responses can be potential targets for therapeutic alternatives to antibiotics. An understanding of the regulation of stress response in association with antibiotic resistance provides useful information for the discovery of novel antimicrobial adjuvants and the development of effective therapeutic strategies to control antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Therefore, this review discusses bacterial stress responses linked to antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative bacteria and also provides information on novel therapies targeting bacterial stress responses that have been identified as potential candidates for the effective control of Gram-negative antibiotic-resistant bacteria.