Figure 4

Schematic diagram depicting the concept of 'co-targets'. A schematic diagram depicting the concept of 'co-targets'. A bacterium upon infection under suitable conditions, leads to bacterial growth. Upon drug treatment however, the intended target of the drug, referred to as the 'primary target' is inhibited and bacteria are either killed or their growth arrested substantially. Over a course of time however, the remnant bacteria develop resistance to the administered drug, resulting in bacterial growth once again. Drug resistance develops by triggering the resistance machinery upon drug exposure. Communication to the resistance machinery from the drug target is established through channels (pathways identified in this study) in the protein-protein interaction network. Proteins important for mediating such communication are termed 'co-targets' and their simultaneous inhibition by suitable drug combinations along with the primary target, will help in preventing emergence of drug resistance, thus rendering the primary drugs useful again. (1) and (2) refer to the primary target and the co-target respectively, which should be considered as a pair (details in text).