Table 3.

Host-directed therapeutic strategy to combat superbug

Host-directed therapeutics strategy	Characteristics
Improving bactericidal activity of phagocytic cells	• Severe bacterial infections weaken immune function due to the regular use of medicine for the treatment of inflammatory disorder that supress innate immunity • Pharmacologically improving bactericidal activity of phagocytic cell could therefore be effective against superbugs
Manipulating cytokines and chemokine	• Cytokine or chemokine are the endogenous pro-immune regulating substances responsible for clearance of resistant pathogen. They have been also used as a new treatment strategy to fight superbugs
Lipid mediators of innate immunity	• It is reported that macrophages when treated with leukotriene B4 (LTB4) induce production of reactive oxygen species through NADPH oxidase system to fight superbugs
Targeting immune regulatory pathways in phagocytes	• Host-directed innate immune boosting approach has been studied in knockout mice and immune modulatory peptides by altering the susceptibility of resistant pathogens
Enhancing Toll-like receptor signaling pathways	• Toll-like receptors play an important role in recognizing pathogen-associated microbial patterns to initiate signaling cascade that promote the regulation of innate immune response genes. This results in increase in the production of cytokines leading to reduction in bacterial burdens
Drugs having unanticipated immune boosting effects	• Some drugs can boost immune response that results in elimination of bacterial pathogen • For example, Tamoxifen-boosted immune system produce beneficial effect against systemic MRSA infection • A randomized trial reports that statin drugs, used for reduction of cholesterol through specific mechanism, also help to reduce the infectious disease like pneumonia, sepsis-associated comorbidities, and mortality rate in patients with bacterial resistance