Redox mechanisms and reactive oxygen species in antibiotic action and resistance

It has been known for a number of years that certain antibiotics, such as the bleomycins, generate reactive oxygen species as a vital component of their killing mechanism. However, recent research has implicated the generation of reactive oxygen species as a unifying mechanism of diverse antibiotics that results in bacterial cell death. At the same time, redox mechanisms are emerging as important to antibiotic activation and resistance. Redox and reactive oxygen species chemical biology is therefore becoming an important area of investigation and could hold the promise for the discovery and development of the next generations of antibiotics.