Polypharmacology (Multi-targeting)

The ability of a drug to alter the activities of multiple targets.

Multi-target drugs act on more than one isoenzyme or closely related proteins of the same pathway, or bind to different molecules involved in separate cellular processes. Multifunctional compounds have a direct antibiotic target but an additional indirect antibacterial activity, e.g., permeabilizing or immunomodulatory properties.

Multitarget approaches against multiresistant superbugs (American Chemical Society Infectious Diseases, 2020)

Polypharmacological drug actions of recently FDA approved antibiotics (European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2021)

Multi-targeting by monotherapeutic antibacterials (Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 2007)