title: Quorum sensing inhibitors: how strong is the evidence?
abstract: Because of its promising effect as an alternative to antibiotics, quorum sensing disruption is an intensively studied field, and there are many studies that describe the quorum sensing inhibitory activity of natural and synthetic compounds. In this opinion article, we present an overview of recent literature with respect to quorum sensing inhibitors. Most of this research is based on experiments with quorum sensing signal molecule reporter strains. However, these experiments are prone to bias due to other effects compounds may have on reporter strains. We argue that researchers should perform adequate control experiments and should carefully assess toxicity of the compounds in the bacterial species they are working with in order to confirm that what they observe really is quorum sensing inhibition.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Aquaculture and Artemia Reference Center, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: Tom.Defoirdt@UGent.be.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Defoirdt
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brackman
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Coenye
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D053038:Quorum Sensing / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
keywords: quorum quenching; quorum sensing