Precision Medicine in Combating Antimicrobial Resistance: A Comprehensive Review.
TL;DR
This review concludes that while precision medicine is not a standalone solution, its successful implementation will depend on coordinated integration of diagnostics, host factors, computational tools, pharmacological optimization, and stewardship strategies to improve patient outcomes while preserving the long-term effectiveness of existing antimicrobials.
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents one of the most pressing threats to global public health, undermining the effectiveness of modern antimicrobial therapy and challenging decades of medical progress. This comprehensive review examines the transition from broad-spectrum empirical therapy toward precision medicine as an integrated framework for improving antimicrobial use and combating AMR. Precision medicine seeks to tailor treatment decisions by combining pathogen-specific genomic and resistance data with relevant host characteristics to optimize therapy while limiting unnecessary antimicrobial exposure and the selective pressures that drive resistance. The review synthesizes advances reported from 2020, highlighting established and emerging approaches including rapid molecular diagnostics, next-generation sequencing, CRISPR-based detection, machine learning (ML)-assisted decision support, precision dosing, and targeted therapeutics such as bacteriophage therapy, antimicrobial peptides, and bacterial proteolysis-targeting chimeras. Rather than functioning as isolated technologies, these approaches achieve their greatest clinical value when integrated within antimicrobial stewardship programs and a One Health framework that recognizes the interconnected human, animal, and environmental drivers of resistance. Despite considerable progress, important challenges remain, including equitable access to advanced technologies, interpretation of increasingly complex datasets, workforce and infrastructure limitations, and evolving regulatory pathways for novel diagnostics and therapeutics. This review concludes that while precision medicine is not a standalone solution, its successful implementation will depend on coordinated integration of diagnostics, host factors, computational tools, pharmacological optimization, and stewardship strategies to improve patient outcomes while preserving the long-term effectiveness of existing antimicrobials.