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The increase in antibiotic resistant and multi-drug resistant bacterial infections has serious implications for the future of health care. The difficulty in finding both new microbial targets and new drugs against existing targets adds to the concern. The use of combination and adjuvant therapies are potential strategies to counter this threat. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a promising class of antibiotics (ABs), particularly for topical and surface applications. Efforts have been directed toward a number of strategies, including the use of conventional ABs combined with AMPs, and the use of potentiating agents to increase the performance of AMPs. This review focuses on combination strategies such as adjuvants and the manipulation of environmental variables to improve the efficacy of AMPs as potential therapeutic agents. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Antimicrobial peptides edited by Karl Lohner and Kai Hilpert. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]