Abstract:Quorum sensing (QS) is the cell-cell communication mechanism in bacteria to regulate cell motility, biofilm formation, toxin production and other pathogenic behaviors via signal molecules secretion and recognition. QS is essential for many pathogenic bacteria to regulate virulence genes expression to invade their hosts, which makes it as a very attractive target for the development of novel disease-suppressive strategies.
Quorum quenching (QQ) is to interfere and block the expression of pathogenic related genes modulated by the quorum sensing of bacteria through signal molecule analogues, signal molecule degrading enzymes and signal receptor activators/inhibitors. This paper reviews the research progress of three important bacterial communication signals and their quenching, and summarizes and prospects the research.