title: Chemical Strategies To Target Bacterial Virulence.
abstract: Antibiotic resistance is a significant emerging health threat. Exacerbating this problem is the overprescription of antibiotics as well as a lack of development of new antibacterial agents. A paradigm shift toward the development of nonantibiotic agents that target the virulence factors of bacterial pathogens is one way to begin to address the issue of resistance. Of particular interest are compounds targeting bacterial AB toxins that have the potential to protect against toxin-induced pathology without harming healthy commensal microbial flora. Development of successful antitoxin agents would likely decrease the use of antibiotics, thereby reducing selective pressure that leads to antibiotic resistance mutations. In addition, antitoxin agents are not only promising for therapeutic applications, but also can be used as tools for the continued study of bacterial pathogenesis. In this review, we discuss the growing number of examples of chemical entities designed to target exotoxin virulence factors from important human bacterial pathogens.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Biology Program, ‡Department of Pathology, §Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and ∥Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine , 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, California 94305, United States.
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garland
authors.affiliation: Cancer Biology Program, ‡Department of Pathology, §Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and ∥Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine , 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, California 94305, United States.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Loscher
authors.affiliation: Cancer Biology Program, ‡Department of Pathology, §Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and ∥Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine , 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, California 94305, United States.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3753-4412
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bogyo
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D014118:Toxins, Biological; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D014118:Toxins, Biological