Abstract
This review highlights several basic problems associated with bacterial drug resistance, including the decreasing efficacy of commercially available antimicrobials as well as the related problem of microbiome irregularity and dysbiosis. The article explains that this present situation is addressable through LAB species, such as Streptococcus salivarius and Ligilactobacillus salivarius, which are well established synthesizers of both broad- and narrow-spectrum antimicrobials. The sheer number of antimicrobials produced by LAB species and the breadth of their biological effects, both in terms of their bacteriostatic/bactericidal abilities and their immunomodulation, make them prime candidates for new probiotics and antibiotics. Given the ease with which several of the molecules can be biochemically engineered and the fact that many of these compounds target evolutionarily constrained target sites, it seems apparent that these compounds and their producing organisms ought to be looked at as the next generation of robust dual action symbiotic drugs.