Multivalent vancomycins and related antibiotics against infectious diseases

This review discusses the recent development of multivalent antibiotics as potential therapeutic agents against infections caused by antimicrobial drug resistant microbes. The discussion focuses on vancomycin because of its important clinical relevance and well-elucidated molecular mechanism of antimicrobial drug resistance. The first section recounts the increased occurrence of vancomycin resistance in the world; the second section briefly discusses the mechanistic study of vancomycin resistance; the third section presents the currently established design principles of multivalent vancomycins; the fourth section examines the structural-activity relationships of multivalent vancomycins; the fifth section describes relevant studies on multivalent antibiotics; and the last section summarizes advantages and limitations of multivalent antibiotics.