Intrusion of Bacterial Quorum-Sensing for Antimicrobial Resistance Mitigation: A Pharmaceutical Perspective

Abstract

Bacteria employ many molecular mechanisms to communicate and adapt the behavior according to their surrounding environment. They produce and sense small diffusible signaling molecules called autoinducers which regulate gene expression involved in virulence, biofilm formation, production of siderophores and protease. This mechanism of communication is referred to as quorum-sensing. The autoinducers are specific to strains and species i.e. Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria use the different signaling molecules to regulate their behavior. In addition, bacteria also produce quorum sensing inhibitors and enzymes to degrade the signaling molecules. In earlier studies, the quorum sensing mutants of pathogenic bacteria were found to be attenuated for virulence and pathogenicity.