Towards the elucidation of the mechanism of the antibiotic activity of tamoxifen

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is increasingly a health and financial burden on the global population. Use and misuse of antibiotics has led to increased frequencies of antibiotic-resistant infections worldwide, leading to fatalities as well as greatly increasing healthcare costs. To combat this, researchers have done much work to expand to the field of antibiotics, delving back into old compounds and testing massive libraries of compounds with rapid screening techniques. Tamoxifen is one such compound that is primarily used as an anticancer agent, but displays many useful other characteristic, including antibacterial effects. However, the mechanism of the antibacterial effects of tamoxifen are poorly documented. My research was aimed at both improving the effectivity of tamoxifen as an antibacterial and elucidating the mechanism of action of tamoxifen.