The exploration of new antimicrobial combinations is a pressing con- cern for Clinical Microbiology due to the growing number of resistant strains emerging in healthcare settings and in the general community. Researchers are screening agents with alternative modes of action and interest is rising for the potential of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). This work presents the first ever network reconstruction of AMP combinations reported in the literature fighting Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. The network, containing 193 combina- tions of AMPs with 39 AMPs and 154 traditional antibiotics, is expected to help in the design of new studies, notably by unveiling different mechanisms of ac- tion and helping in the prediction of new combinations and synergisms. The challenges faced in the attempted text-mining approaches and other considera- tions regarding the manual curation of the data are pointed out, reflecting about the future automation of this type of reconstruction as means to widen the scope of analysis.
['Paula Alexandra Silva Jorge', 'Maria Olívia Pereira', 'Anália Lourenço']
Networking the Way towards Antimicrobial Combination Therapies