title: Quorum quenching agents: resources for antivirulence therapy.
abstract: The continuing emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens is a concern to human health and highlights the urgent need for the development of alternative therapeutic strategies. Quorum sensing (QS) regulates virulence in many bacterial pathogens, and thus, is a promising target for antivirulence therapy which may inhibit virulence instead of cell growth and division. This means that there is little selective pressure for the evolution of resistance. Many natural quorum quenching (QQ) agents have been identified. Moreover, it has been shown that many microorganisms are capable of producing small molecular QS inhibitors and/or macromolecular QQ enzymes, which could be regarded as a strategy for bacteria to gain benefits in competitive environments. More than 30 species of marine QQ bacteria have been identified thus far, but only a few of them have been intensively studied. Recent studies indicate that an enormous number of QQ microorganisms are undiscovered in the highly diverse marine environments, and these marine microorganism-derived QQ agents may be valuable resources for antivirulence therapy.
authors.affiliation: College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China. kaihao.tang@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Kaihao
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China. xhzhang@ouc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiao-Hua
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D053038:Quorum Sensing / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents