Efflux Pump and its Inhibitors: Novel Targets to Combat Drug Resistance

The rapid emergence of resistant bacteria is occurring worldwide, endangering the efficacy of antibiotics, which have transformed medicine and saved millions of lives. Antibiotic resistance has become a major clinical problem today. In addition, multidrug resistance also develops various structurally and functionally unrelated toxic compounds. To overcome this problem, a new target efflux pump was recognized that, if inhibited, reduces the level of resistance or potentiates or produces a synergistic effect in combination with antibiotics. Keeping this in view, the present review article aims to describe the families of efflux pumps and the various natural components to be employed as good efflux pump inhibitors.