Meropenem/Vaborbactam—A Mechanistic Review for Insight into Future Development of Combinational Therapies

Abstract

Beta-lactam antibiotics have been a major climacteric in medicine for being the first bactericidal compound available for clinical use. They have continually been prescribed since their development in the 1940s, and their application has saved an immeasurable number of lives. With such immense use, the rise in antibiotic resistance has truncated the clinical efficacy of these compounds. Nevertheless, the synergism of combinational antibiotic therapy has allowed these drugs to burgeon once again. Here, the development of meropenem with vaborbactam—a recently FDA-approved beta-lactam combinational therapy—is reviewed in terms of structure rationale, activity gamut, pharmacodynamic/pharmacokinetic properties, and toxicity to provide insight into the future development of analogous therapies.

Keywords

• beta-lactam antibiotics
• combination therapy
• meropenem
• vaborbactam