Wang, HanfeiYang, YingyingWang, SimengBadawy, SaraWang, XuAres Lombán, IrmaMartínez Caballero, MartaLópez Torres, BernardoMartínez Larrañaga, María RosaAnadón Navarro, Arturo RamónMartínez Caballero, María AranzazuDe Smedt, Stefaan2024-04-042024-04-042024-03-160168-365910.1016/j.jconrel.2024.03.031https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/102719Authors contribution: Hanfei Wang: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Yingying Yang: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Supervision, Investigation, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Simeng Wang: Writing – original draft, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Sara Badawy: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Irma Ares: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Marta Martínez: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Bernardo Lopez-Torres: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Supervision, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. María-Rosa Martínez-Larranaga: ˜ Writing – original draft, Visualization, Supervision, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Xu Wang: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Arturo Anadon: ´ Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Supervision, Project administration, Investigation, Conceptualization. María-Aranzazu ´ Martínez: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Validation, Supervision, Project administration, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Conceptualization.The resistance of multidrug-resistant bacteria to existing antibiotics forces the continued development of new antibiotics and antibacterial agents, but the high costs and long timeframe involved in the development of new agents renders the hope that existing antibiotics may again play a part. The “antibiotic adjuvant” is an indirect antibacterial strategy, but its vague concept has, in the past, limited the development speed of related drugs. In this review article, we put forward an accurate concept of a “non-self-antimicrobial sensitisers (NSAS)”, to distinguish it from an “antibiotic adjuvant”, and then discuss several scientific methods to restore bacterial sensitivity to antibiotics, and the sources and action mechanism of existing NSAS, in order to guide the development and further research of NSAS.engAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationaljournal article1873-4995https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-controlled-releaseopen access636.09:615Multidrug-resistant bacteriaAntibiotic adjuvantAntimicrobial sensitizerIndirect antibacterialFarmacología (Medicina)3109.08 Farmacología