Table 1. Contrast between principles of encoded immunity and conventional precepts of antimicrobial drug development.

Issue	Principle of encoded immunity	Pharmaceutical precept constraining development of antimicrobial agents as an element of adopted immunity
Target essentiality	Targets essential to the pathogen under conditions pertaining in the host	Targets essential under standard growth conditions in the laboratory
Target selectivity	Multiple targets of ROS, RNS, CO, AMPs	Single target
Target conservation	Targets often present in host as well as in pathogen	Target absent in host
Suitable target classes	Many: synthesis of nucleic acids, proteins, cell walls, or folate, but also induction, synthesis, secretion, or action of virulence factors; energy generation; ion gradients; transport; signaling; processing; repair; degradation; sequestration	Few: Synthesis of nucleic acids, proteins, cell walls, or folate
Microbial species specificity	Combination of broad spectrum and narrow spectrum	Broad spectrum
Host toxicity	Inescapable; almost always manageable and reparable	Forbidden when predictable
Genotoxicity	Inescapable; very rarely consequential	Forbidden